Apparently, respite is actually available from our adversarial, political, media-drenched atmosphere, if you look. Little gems of culture and civilization are available everywhere, if you look. Alternatively, if you have friends who look, and are willing to share, you too can participate in these local diamonds in the dust.

We accepted a friends’ invitation to join them for a lecture at the California Archives Speaker Series featuring Michael Troyan, author of: “Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment.” In addition to being an author, Mr. Troyan is an archivist, not to be confused with an anarchist. Mentally form your image of an archivist, and fade it into that memory section of your brain reserved for erroneous pre-conceptions. Exchange that image for an enthusiastic, energetic person with access to deep wells of history and the ability to present that information with detail, humor and a personal sense of amazement. Michael’s love of history, the movie entertainment industry, and perhaps even more so, the people he met and interviewed during the course of writing this book becomes apparent as he speaks. If you ever have the opportunity to attend Michael’s presentation, take it. If no one invites you to attend, go look for it. It will be well worth your time and effort.

The California State Archives Speaker Series presents programs three or four times a year. Among others, past presentations included, “Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World”, “Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California’s Central Valley Project”, “John Muir and the Big Trees” and “Arabian Dreams in the American Desert: The Cultivation of Middle Eastern Fantasies in California’s Coachella Valley”.

Visit and bookmark the Archives website and add future California State Archives Speakers Series events to your calendar, then look at it.