There comes a time in every reporter's career when an actor must be interviewed because they've directed a short film. These moments are fraught with anxiety because the films are often vanity projects created for the sake of showcasing some nascent talent the actor believes has been overlooked, without ever questioning why. I'm happy to report this is decidedly not the case with Zach Woods' debut directorial effort, David, a hilarious, humanistic portrait of psychic healing that should be prescribed viewing for the sake of global mental health. » Read More

You wanted a staycation, you said. You need to catch up on streaming, you said. Well, the magic elf that lives in the sky certainly gave you what you wanted. During this period of house arrest, Netflix's cornucopia continues to spill narcos, zombies and real-life crime. Take a hard pass in favor of the adventures of a Suffolk sheep. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon cites ET, Men in Black, Doctor Who and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The space invader is about a yard high, a sort of mischievous finger puppet shaped critter with tentacles. Topped with an azure puppyish head, he's a deep-space cousin to Peanuts' Snoopy. Shaun helps him phone home, while warding off trouble from the Ministry of Alien Detection, and the authoritarian » Read More

Janice Lobo Sapigao didn't expect her first year as the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate would be sucker punched by a global pandemic, but she's determined not to let that stop her from getting South Bay kids to love their own words. The Silicon Valley native took over the two-year poet laureate position in January. The honorary post comes with a mandate to increase poetry awareness and celebration. Sapigao, a Filipina American poet, author, writer, educator and active community member, has plenty of ideas for that. » Read More

The text on the marquee said it all: "The Ritz Closed Until Further Notice." The news came as a disappointment to fans of Xavier Dprehpaulezz--the imaginative blues singer and songwriter who performs under the moniker Fantastic Negrito--who was scheduled to wow the crowds at The Ritz on March 19. As the county and state ramp up efforts to prevent a spike in novel coronavirus cases, bars, nightclubs and live music venues are shutting down, and it is unclear when they will open again. » Read More

Talk, talk everywhere but not a drop of trust. "Opinion has become our driving force," says Quinn, who brings his new show, The Wrong Side of History, to Stanford for four performances March 13 and 14. "Free speech, exchange of opinion, open communication: These things are automatically thought of as evolutionary ways to get to enlightenment. But my whole show is, hey, maybe we've gone too far with free speech, once we have electronically made opinion this thing that everyone gives out all day, every day." » Read More

This time, the Tao of synchronicity emerged in connection with the classic San Jose thoroughfare of forgotten suburbia: Umbarger Road. First of all, I, the Urban Blight Exploration Junkie, cannot walk down Umbarger behind the county fairgrounds without channeling a matrix of history. A more standard historian might explain in no crazy terms that David Umbarger was one of the original forty-niners that came west looking for gold and that his descendants eventually sold portions of the family's massive acreage to the Santa Clara County Fair Association. » Read More

In 1994, the animated movie The Lion King told the story of the difficult journey made by a young lion as he struggled to claim his destiny as rightful king. A remake of the film appeared in 2019. During the intervening 25 years, the number of real lions living in nature declined dramatically. There are now just 20,000. Why am I telling you such bad news? I hope to inspire you to make 2021 a year when you will resist trends like this. » Read More

Even without a live gathering of global humanitarians, hi-end video presentations and reporters mobbing the lasagna, the optimism endures. One of the events I normally look forward to every year at this time is Tech for Global Good, formerly the Tech Awards, which is the San Jose Tech Interactive's signature annual event, a pure-positive celebration of projects showing great promise in addressing humanitarian themes. One gets to hobnob with aspiring entrepreneurs whose goals are not to write phone apps that deliver potato chips at 3am, but instead to address poverty, world hunger, sustainable energy and climate change. The event is one of the most inspiring parties of the year. » Read More

"A little too much is just enough for me," joked poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. I suspect that when he said that, he was in a phase similar to the one you're in now. I bet he was experiencing a flood of creative ideas, pleasurable self-expressions and loving breakthroughs. He was probably right to risk going a bit too far, because he was learning so much from surpassing his previous limitations and exploring the frontiers outside his comfort zone. Now here's your homework, Aries: Identify two actions you could take that fit the profile I've described here. » Read More