Cuaron's screen is jam-packed and yet everything within its borders matters. The narrow driveway Cleo swabs is the site for a keen running joke about the too-big status symbol gringo car, with only millimeters of clearance on either side. We glimpse a mystic muscleman on TV, dressed something like Kaliman, El Hombre Increible; the yogi returns in a less benign setting, training a paramilitary gang. Needing a change of scenery, the family heads off to a hacienda in the hills, for scenes that can be compared for merry decadence to Renoir's Rules of the Game. In this fantastic tableau, the partiers go too far with their guns, torches and booze and end up setting the woods on fire. » Read More

How it succeeds is as something for everyone. For the old fans, that something will be Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson). He's the same kind of teenage mess Peter Parker always is, no matter who wears the mask, only now he's hitting 40, with a crap apartment, a pizza-nourished belly and sweatpants. Yet of all the spectacle here, one of the most gallant moments was Peter B. doing some quick back-cracking and leg stretches before getting out there into the field. In the movie's most lyrical passage, he teaches young Milo how to swing by webs through a brilliantly orange fall forest, all while the pair are pursued by one of the series' most nightmarish villains. » Read More

Santa Barbara-based writer William Reynolds has written a biography of one of the unsung creators of the cowboy image in the popular imagination. His name was Joe De Yong, and he was an artist, illustrator, creative consultant and, most importantly, a genuine cowboy. As portrayed in the beautiful new illustrated book, Joe De Yong: A Life in the West (Alamar Media), De Yong represented the direct link between the paintings of famed cowboy artist Charles Russell and the Western films that dominated Hollywood's golden era. » Read More

Instead of making a collage to fit inside of a frame, Murray (1940-2007) started each new work by sketching out her ideas. Then her bulbous, gangly forms would come to dictate the organic shapes of her canvases. The massive painting Bop (2002-2003) epitomizes her approach. It's an amalgamation of bold colors that challenges the viewer to come up with a logical response to it. A geometry assignment given at a clown college with a garish palette to match. Ketchup red outlines a distended yellow letter "M," which, in turn, exhales a teal ghost. The ghost is about to collide into a pink worm with holes cut out of its midsection.. » Read More

Few people can cast a spell simply by entering a room. Tandy Beal can. With the carriage of a queen and the grace of a Botticelli sylph, the dancer-turned-impresario personifies joie de vivre. Energizing a stage or critiquing a new work-in-progress, Beal is as fully alive, active andengaged as it is possible to be. Or at least that's what it looks like to her many students, audiences and fellow dancers. And it has for more decades than seems possible. Beal of the dark eyes, long limbs and infamous mane of Pre-Raphaelite hair just can't quit. She's been everywhere, collaborated with everyone from Frank Zappa to Bobby McFerrin, and directed both the Moscow Circus and Pickle Family Circus. Her company, Tandy Beal & Company, has been provoking » Read More

Then, as now, there were struggles for power within the tech industry. Another Valley of the Boom narrative thread follows the so-called "Browser Wars" between Netscape, a Mountain View startup, and Microsoft. The Seattle-based tech titan would go on to use its heft to deliver a number of serious blows to Netscape's market share, drawing an antitrust case in the process. Though a district court ruled that Microsoft had engaged in anti-competitive practices by bundling its own in-house browser along with its operating system, the computing company ultimately came out ahead, as Netscape Navigator evaporated in the pink mist of the internet bubble's bursting. » Read More

Al Preciado is a retrospective kind of dude. A decades-long fixture in the San Jose art community and now into his 21st year of teaching at Bellarmine, he often sells his work at South First Fridays or paints canvases in front of Kaleid Gallery during the summer months, usually with his students or proteges. The late Harry Powers showed him the ropes decades ago, and now Preciado passes the baton by teaching younger artists what he knows. This Saturday, Preciado's latest solo show, a retrospective of large landscapes he painted mostly this year, unfolds at the Citadel Gallery, from noon until midnight. » Read More

Interestingly, research increasingly suggests that providing social support may be even better for you than getting it, both psychologically and physically. A study co-authored by psychiatrist Randolph Nesse on elderly people who regularly did generous acts for others is one of a number that find an association between being a "giver" and increased life expectancy. Conversely, Nesse theorizes that the rising tide of depression in our society has roots in how disconnected many of us are, leading to a deficit in the kindness we evolved to give and receive. » Read More

In 1930, some British mystery writers formed a club to provide each other with artistic support and conviviality. They swore an oath to write their stories so that solving crimes happened solely through the wits of their fictional detectives, and not through "Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, or Act of God." I understand that principle, but don't endorse it for your use in the coming weeks. On the contrary. I hope you'll be on the alert and receptive to Divine Revelations, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, and Acts of God. » Read More