If you want a captain who double-teams twin alien chicks (they have tails, a la Avatar) and who'll get into senseless fights with prisoners who have already surrendered, Capt. James Tiberius Kirk is your man. Chris Pine's resemblance to our Shatner is mostly physical, a baby-faced thuggery; he's more lowdown, and he has motorcyclist's hooks to the cut of his sideburns. » Read More

Deepa Mehta's diverting, noble attempt to wrangle Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children to the screen (it played at Cinequest this year) is ultimately worth a look, thanks to the power of a book able to look after itself. Rushdie did the script, and the results are what you would expect when a novelist adapts his own work: a preservation of narration above all. » Read More

A novel of riches, of self-made men and the attempt to grasp a single, pure image of the past, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been previously thrice-filmed for the big screen. (There's also an unauthorized version titled Citizen Kane.) "His determination to have my company bordered on violence," said Nick Carraway of Tom Buchanan, and that sums up the shaping of the new Baz Luhrmann version. » Read More

SCHONBERG AND BOUBLIL'S Miss Saigon was immensely popular in the 1990s despite some harsh backlash, and the fine local treatment it has received at the hands of Palo Alto Players proves just how well it holds up today. This tale of ill-fated romance between Vietnamese bargirl Kim and American G.I. Chris borrows its basic, glaringly Orientalist premise from Puccini's Madame Butterfly. » Read More

For nearly 40 years, Berkeley photographer Richard Misrach has documented modern industry's impact on nature. Two years ago, his 1991 photos of the Oakland Hills fire were exhibited at the Berkeley and Oakland Museums. Now, his documentation of the Mississippi River delta between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, commissioned by Atlanta's High Museum of Art, is on view at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center. » Read More

Last year, the music industry reported its highest sales since 1999, driven by digital sales. But even with numbers growing and digital platforms surfacing, live music remains a battlefield when it comes to innovation, especially with live streaming. Bands are spending more time on the road to promote their music, but these efforts remain almost exclusively terrestrial. Most live performances that make it online are shaky and gritty, bootleg shots that show up as YouTube clips. » Read More

In the 10 years since its inception, the phenomenon of PechaKucha 20x20 has gone viral in more than 600 cities around the globe, including San Jose. For the uninitiated, PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where anyone can show 20 images, one after the other, each for 20 seconds, while he or she talks. Pronounced pa-CHOCK-oo-cha, the idea began in Tokyo in 2003, when two architects craved a more informal, cafe-style setting to present their ideas. » Read More

Thank you, Mr. Allen, for helping me understand how to think like a consultant. For any political candidates looking for a spin doctor, consider this my resume ('Allen Wrench,' The Fly, May 1). » Read More