Alison O. Bender

The Best of Tahoe issue is in! I love this issue: It’s where we celebrate all the wonderful things (and there are a lot) that we love about Lake Tahoe.

I had a really interesting piece to write: I approached seven artists (well, eight, but one didn’t get back to me) and asked them to choose an artwork that, to them, represented Lake Tahoe and explain how that particular piece embodied the Tahoe spirit. It was really interesting to see the responses. There were, as you’d imagine, some of the “typical” lake artworks, like paintings of the beautiful turquoise waters at Sand Harbor. But there were a surprising number of pieces that captured the forest over the lake, which made me wonder if, perhaps, though the lake is Tahoe’s most defining feature, the forest may be its soul. Anyway, a lot of great artwork: paintings, photographs, some abstract, some vividly realistic, even one piece that was made using the forces of Tahoe weather through cold winters, lake water and night winds.

A fun piece to write, but there are lots of other good stories inside, as well. I love Wendy Hudnall’s photo essay featuring aerial views of Lake Tahoe, the history piece about George Whittell Jr. and the home design piece on actress Nancy Travis’ Martis Camp estate.

Now, time to get working on the Summer issue!

Browsing the paper, hot off the presses!

 Had a great field trip with members of Sierra Nevada College’s Eagle’s Eye down to Carson City yesterday! Tanya (whose two classes I took over for the semester) organizes this trip every year or so. It was very cool: We went to the Nevada Appeal, Carson’s daily newspaper, which is also the site where the Eagle’s Eye is printed. First, we toured the building. The editor was out sick, but a huge shout-out to Chris, who gave a very informative tour! We met Taylor, one of the staff reporters, who talked a little about her beats covering crime and breaking news. Then we watched the newspaper get printed. It’s a really remarkable process, and one I’d never seen before. The newsprint looks like giant rolls of receipt paper (though they can weigh 3,000 pounds) and between the inking, aligning, color corrections and everything, it’s a very intense process. It was so cool, though, to see the newspapers rolling off the conveyor at the end. Also, when you realize how many people work to make the paper a reality—beyond those people writing, editing, designing and taking photos—it really makes it all that more incredible to hold the final copy in your hand. Nevada Appeal prints some 30 papers at the facility, from papers south to Bishop and east to Winnemucca.

Anyway, great trip, finished with brunch at the Cracker Box, and got to hold the newspaper a day before the printed date, so a success all around!

Almost forgot, but we had a Reno staycation at the Atlantis Casino a few weeks ago! Very fun trip—hubs and I had a babysitter come stay with the girls while we attended the big crab feed. Great event: king crab legs, lobster bisque, various types of shrimp and a lot of different desserts; I practically had to roll back to the room.

BUT one of the exciting things was that in the guestroom there was a copy of Where Reno-Tahoe! My old boss at TQ, Chaco, now works for the company and had hired me to write an article about the film history of the Reno-Tahoe area. It was a fun story to write—researching the stories behind old movies (like The Gold Rush, which supposedly hired a bunch of Sacramento vagrants to struggle up a snowy Donner Pass, which was standing in for Alaska) to rewatching Sister Act while looking for Reno cameos.

Anyway, fun to see it in print! I wrote another article recently for Where San Francisco that I need to check up on. It was about Mark Twain’s time in Tahoe and was really fun to research; I took a trip to Virginia City and read Roughin’ It. Twain really is quite quotable and his words stick with you—I was at an Incline Village beach on Saturday and was telling a friend about the “balloon voyages” he took, which meant lying on a boat and simply looking down at the water and, because of its clarity, imagine he was floating in the sky. What a perfect description, right? And a good reminder to continue working on my descriptive writing!

Here is the link to the article: 18 Must-See Films Shot in Reno-Tahoe

My TQ Mountain Home issue is here! I LOVE this issue: People put so much time, attention, detail and love into these homes and it shows. Often, the homeowners and architects and designers aren’t just sharing a house; they are sharing a dream.

In the 13th annual issue, I write about an Alpine Meadows cabin that was once the home of 1950s screen siren Hazel Court. It’s been updated, enlarged and remodeled by the crew at Olson-Olson Architecture and Bruce Olson Construction. I also write about a Sugar Bowl townhouse that was remodeled in a European Alps style, thanks to the design vision of the talented Justine MacFee, as well as a unique, organic-style Martis Camp cabin that lives even larger than its 3,200 square feet, and was dreamed up by builder Mark Neave and executed by architect Dennis Zirbel and designer Julie Johnson-Holland.

There are so many other amazing stories in this issue: The Outstanding Home, which was built into such a steep mountainside that the construction superintendent estimates he traveled the vertical distance from sea level to the top of Mt. Everest 3.5 times; a funky waterfront estate named “Tahizzle”; a smartly designed Martis Camp cabin that lives in just 1,718 square feet (at least half, and, in some cases, just a small fraction of the square footage of many of the Martis mansions); as well as many, many other amazing homes and stories. Pick up a copy around Lake Tahoe or subscribe here!

I have some really exciting news—I’m going to be taking over two classes at Sierra Nevada College for the semester! SNC is this great little campus in Incline Village, and I’ll be teaching out of the library, which is a beautiful newer building. I got the initial email just before Christmas, and I wasn’t even sure if it was definitely going to happen until very recently. But I met with HR on Monday, as well as the woman whose classes I’m taking over. She’s been teaching the classes—a journalism course and an editing course—for the past five years, so she’s got fairly in-depth syllabi, tests, worksheets. Still, I have to read up on all the assignments, see if there’s anything I want to change, plan lessons—it’s a lot of work and it’s been very little time to prepare.

My classes are Monday/Wednesday, so my first class will be this coming Wednesday. Then I’m out of town that second week (hubby’s got a conference in Orlando so we’re taking the girls to Disney!). The woman I’m taking over for can cover those classes, though I feel bad that I won’t meet my once-a-week editing class until the second week of school. Still, not much I can do as the trip’s been planned since long before I knew about the job.

Anyway, I’m very excited about the opportunity! It’s just for the one semester, but I’ve always wanted to get into teaching at some point in my life, and this seems like the ideal introduction. So whether it leads to anything or not, I’m just really excited to try my hand at it—I have a feeling I’ll be learning as much as the students. And in case you were wondering about the cupcake up top, it’s my celebration sweet!

I’ve got a couple of assignments for the Mountain Home issue of Tahoe Quarterly (my favorite issue!) and I’ve started the write-up for one of the Martis Camp homes. The application states the home will make you “experience the multitude of feelings no home has made you feel before.” Whew—I feel like I should have a talk with my house and make it clear that it is strictly for professional reasons that I’m experiencing feelings for another home!

I go into my office all of maybe ten times a year but I love being there! Partly it’s that I really do love editing, partly it’s that it’s nice to get out of mom-mode and be around other adults, partly it’s because my editor always brings me a snack (frosted brownies, thank you, Kyle!) and partly its because of the breath-taking views going the mountain. As much as I love living in Reno, there is just no competition on the views of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains. Anyway, the Winter issue looks great, the brownie was delicious and the drive was gorgeous, so another good day at the office!