Birthday Party in Newcastle

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of attending my uncle Arnold Barer's 75th birthday, held at a magnificent venue in Newcastle, Washington overlooking Seattle and its environs.







Mother nature graced our brunch with a magnificent rainbow. Uncle Arny, ever competitive, pulled out his iPhone and showed me a picture he snapped of the much more impressive rainbow he'd seen from his house earlier that morning.
















After the huge buffet, we were treated to speeches from Uncle Arny's friends and family, including one from my dad to his brother. (I don't know if the matching yellow sweaters were planned.)











Arny also endured some good-natured (I hope) roasting from his sons. Here's Sam, who enlisted Arny's grandkids into his plans.














Also present were my brothers (and fellow bloggers) Steve and Mike, along with their respective spouses.

We all had a great time. I hope that our family will continue to have milestone birthdays like this into the future.

Desert Trip

Today, we took a road trip down to Rancho Mirage to visit Dad and Regina, along with my brother Steve and my sister-in-law Dawn. Along with a great dinner at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, one of the highlights was Dad reading aloud from his book, while Steve and I took turns videoing him.

Here's some footage of Dad reading about his parents' courtship:




Watch "Dad reads a story from his book." on YouTube

Update: Dad's book is now available on Lulu.com as a paperback for $9.02 (http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/a-barer-blog-posts-2006-2009/13049205?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1) and as an ebook for 99 cents (http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/a-barer-blog-posts-2006-2009/13049206?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2) We are making the book available at cost.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

"A Barer" Blog Posts Collection Now Available

"A Barer: Blog Posts 2006-2009" -- a collection of excerpts from my dad's blog -- is available at:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/a-barer-blog-posts-2006-2009/9199980


We haven't put any markup on the book; Lulu.com is the only party making money on it. A hard copy of the book (perfect-bound trade paperback) is $9.02; an ebook version (pdf) will set you back the princely sum of 99 cents.

Obviously, I'm biased; but when I pick a copy up and read it, I find it hard to put down. It's filled with anecdotes about our family; about Dad growing up in Walla Walla, Washington; about the famous people Dad has known; about the various personalities who have worked at the family business; and about life in general, from someone who has lived it.

For samples, see Dad's blog at www.abarer.blogspot.com

My Father Makes (a) Book

In the benign sense of the phrase.

I've been working on compiling posts from my father's blog (http://www.abarer.blogspot.com/) into a paperback book, published on Lulu.com. An initial edition was not formatted to my tastes, and so I spent this afternoon reformatting the manuscript and uploading it.

If this edition is satisfactory, I'll post the URL for purchasing the book. We will be making it available at cost, with no markup.

Just a few years ago, putting together this sort of project would require paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to a publisher or "vanity press"; and the result would be an ungainly-looking pamphlet. Today, a service such as Lulu.com provides the software tools for putting together a professional-looking perfect-bound paperback, with a color cover, for no money upfront. Money is paid only when a book is ordered and printed.

In an era in which the entire traditional book publishing and distribution industry is in jeopardy, I'm glad that services such as this are available to help people preserve history via the written word.

How I Spent My Saturday Afternoon

No real need for me to blog in detail about the Golberg book signing I attended yesterday, since my cousin Burl has already done so. http://adoraburl.typepad.com/burl_barer/2010/08/psych-monk-burn-notice-goldberg-rabkin-goldberg-talk-tieins-and-success.html#tp

I got there late, and so missed the picture-taking.

I did, however, make sure Burl was included in the book-signing magic by bringing two rare tomes for his signature: His 1994 book about the MAVERICK movie and TV series; and his 2006 novelization of the movie STEALTH, which was published only in Japanese. (I showed him where his name was spelled out in Katakana.)

Walla Walla Wedding Wedding

I am presently in my home town of Walla Walla, Washington, where mere hours ago I participated in the wedding of my younger brother, Steve, to new sister-in-law Dawn Marie.

Walla Walla is pretty much identical to how it was when I last visited here three years ago: a city that was once dominated by the wheat and sweet onion business, but that now focuses on tourism revolving around the multitude of wineries in the area.

Shops that were around when I was kid are still around, run by the same people. I stopped into Earthlight Books, still run by David Crosby (no, not that one), and picked up a first edition paperback of I, THE JURY, kinda beat up (as is appropriate for a hardboiled novel) for a few bucks. Hot Poop records, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, is still around, on Main Street, and still run by Jim McGuinn. Amy and Jim traded stories about the tour of the Dead that both watched, albeit at different tour dates and locations.

Today we gathered in Pioneer Park for the wedding, I in a tux. The weather cooperated; although it's been roasting lately in Walla Walla, nature's thermostat turned itself down slightly. So we had the best of all worlds: Sunny skies, slight breezes, and temps in the 70's and low 80's. The wedding went off without a hitch (except the obvious one), and matrimony ensued.

The most action-packed moment in the ceremony was when Steve stomped the wine glass. Beforehand, there were concerns that the glass was too sturdy, and that the soft grass of the park would render shattering difficult. But Steve is a black belt in karate. With the encouragement of the rabbi, he shouted a kyaa and pulverized the glass into sand molecules.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring anything to connect my camera to my laptop; so no photos can be posted yet. (Soon.)