oh yeah, the times

[jfb]

Northern California is the featured region in the Travel section. A piece on Salinas and the National Steinbeck Center talks about Steinbeck's troubled relationship with his hometown, but doesn't give away my favorite breakfast place. (Now I'm really looking forward to stopping by on my way south this week.) There's also a drive along "the tumultuous and wind-swept coast of Sonoma County," and an article by a San Francisco writer about her weekend in Oakland and Berkeley has exactly the "quirky people living the good life" feel that made me give up reading about San Francisco.

In Arts and Leisure, an article on the past and future of Mickey Mouse features a bunch of "reimagined" designs for the character, but no illustrations of past design changes traced in the text.

A. O. Scott laments the elevation of B movies into prestige films. (In a related story on Monday, Quentin Tarantino had a good weekend.)

This week's Playlist is by the guy who made The Grey Album. He starts out with an homage to Ennio Morricone, Britney Spears's new video, and the Goodbye, Lenin! soundtrack:

There's a spooky track with a vibraphone called "Mother Will Die," which almost makes me want to avoid seeing the film, just to make sure it doesn't ruin the music.

Then he moves on to hip-hop, punk, and the Sopranos.

Also: the rise of large-print photography; the photojournalist Eugene Richards; and sound art by Stephen Vitiello.

Comments

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

...the author once objected to the naming of a local school building after him...

That would be the high school that my mother attended the year it was opened.

KB2

[talking-sock.livejournal.com]

I saw Kill Bill 2 yesterday, after not being sure I'd really liked 1, partly due to the violence. This one had less gore, and made a really great film combined with the first. The writing, acting, weirdness, and humor are fab. I think the guy probably is an evil comic genius, it's just too bad about the blood and guts. If only it were skin instead, I could take it better.

Quirky people living the good life really bug me too. They're usually all rich and proud of themselves, not to mention organic.