The reincarnation of Joan of Arc once walked the streets of San Jose, and even had a regular radio show on KKUP. Premiering at the first Diamond in the Rough Film Festival at BlueLight Cinemas in Cupertino, The Ambassador of God is a documentary concerning the radio psychic and lecturer, Brother Anthony Penera. The co-director (with Francesca Stonum) is Diamond in the Rough festival founder, Mark Schwab. » Read More

Like the Johnny Depp-starring Black Mass, Pawn Sacrifice is a monomaniacal character study, which is supposed to leave one in awe of the lead actor's focus. Similar to Depp's portrayal of Whitey Bulger's ghoulish solitude, Tobey Maguire plays Bobby Fischer, a 1970s chess champion, buckling under the weight of his burgeoning celebrity and teetering on the verge of madness. » Read More

Mountain View's The Pear Theatre (formerly the Pear Avenue Theatre), which recently moved to a brand-new performance space, kicks off its first season in its new home with The Walls of Jericho, a world-premiere adaptation of a classic romantic comedy. The Pear's artistic director, Diane Tasca, adapted the 1933 short story Night Bus (by Samuel Hopkins Adams, also the basis for the Oscar-winning film It Happened One Night) into a sweet and charming production for the stage. » Read More

Sex! Murder! Scandal! And all that jazz. Chicago is a one of the very best musical comedies ever to hit the Great White Way, and Palo Alto Players delivers a nearly flawless version of the razzle-dazzle-filled spectacular. Based on the true stories of several Windy City women who literally got away with murder during the Roaring '20s, Chicago (by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse) debuted on Broadway in 1975. It's a mix of Jazz Age music styles and modern black humor that's held up well. » Read More

Novelist Chang-rae Lee writes about disenfranchisement. His characters and environments tend to unfold in Hermann Hesse-level proportions of alienation. Someone, somewhere, always seems to be inner-scrambling to reconnect with a mislaid page of his own composition. For example, one can imagine Jungian shades of Harry Haller from Hesse's Steppenwolf and Emil Sinclair from his Demian and transplant them to Lee's protagonist in A Gesture Life. They may even be distant literary cousins. » Read More

You can be perceived as compulsive," it began. Not flattering, I thought, but it's possible. "You are consistent; you enjoy familiar routines. You are motivated to seek out experiences that provide a strong feeling of self-expression." Typical observations for an astrologer, but these didn't come from a person. I was reading my "hyper-personal" profile, a description of my personality traits and values created solely from what I post online. » Read More