Maybe if the familiar brick wall standing behind comedians were riddled with bullet holes, they'd pick their material with more discernment: "Choose your next witticism carefully...it may be your last!" San Jose director Kuang Lee's Buddy Solitaire starts with a masochistic L.A. comedian about to self-destruct. First, Buddy (Brandon J. Sornberger) moans about the pleasure of headlining on a Tuesday night to losers, then he detonates the very old and very bad joke about how they define a virgin girl out in the rural states. In shame the next morning, after pounding his head against the table--"ruining the ol' money-maker," as he tells his appalled, newly pregnant girlfriend--Buddy decides to get a real job. » Read More

Native daughter Greta Gerwig's enchanting debut as director isn't just a fine comedy about a singular girl's senior year in 2002. It's also a good-looking movie about a city that deserves admiration, with the gilded Tower Bridge seen at dawn, green fields, grand houses, and a catalogue of the place's vintage neon signs displayed to Jon Brion's score. Catholic-school senior Christine (Saoirse Ronan, with two-toned hair and a little spray of acne) cooked up the name "Lady Bird" for herself. She's ashamed of her one-bathroom home and Sacto in general: "It's soul-killing. The Midwest of California." Like any 17-year-old, she can't figure out what's infuriating her embittered, overworked mother. Mom (Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf, excellent) is in » Read More

Katherine Filice never expected doodles would pave the way for her first ever art show in London. In fact, when she first started putting ink to paper, she wouldn't have thought to show her work to anyone, let alone an entire art fair half a world away. Offering a startling glimpse into everyday emotions, Filice creates pen-and-ink designs in the hopes that her art resonates with others, emphasizing that we are living a shared experience. Even the most well-adjusted people have fleeting moments of intense emotions--feelings of frustration, pain, sorrow or betrayal. An active member in the community and executive creative director of a thriving marketing firm in the heart of downtown Gilroy, Filice has helped many to develop their brand. » Read More

A few years ago, after getting laid off from Yahoo, I decided to reinvent my life in the most rational way possible: I drew portraits of America's vice presidents with octopuses on their heads. The pictures seemed to have struck a chord with people because they gave me a pile of money on Kickstarter last year to turn the pictures into a book called Veeptopus: Vice Presidents with Octopuses on Their Heads. Life is funny sometimes. My fascination with the vice presidency started when I was 5, flipping through a copy of Newsweek. Walter Mondale was on the cover, standing sheepishly behind Jimmy Carter. "What does a vice president do?" » Read More

A few years ago, after getting laid off from Yahoo, I decided to reinvent my life in the most rational way possible: I drew portraits of America's vice presidents with octopuses on their heads. The pictures seemed to have struck a chord with people because they gave me a pile of money on Kickstarter last year to turn the pictures into a book called Veeptopus: Vice Presidents with Octopuses on Their Heads. Life is funny sometimes. My fascination with the vice presidency started when I was 5, flipping through a copy of Newsweek. Walter Mondale was on the cover, standing sheepishly behind Jimmy Carter. "What does a vice president do?" » Read More

William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, showed up last week at Cafe Stritch to give an articulate, crafted presentation about his life and work, after which he conversed on stage with Steve Kettmann and signed books for quite some time. It was the type of event that yet brought a recurring question to mind: Why wasn't San Jose doing this 20 years ago? Presented by the Center for Literary Arts at San Jose State University, the event was the second time this semester, following Viet Thanh Nguyen's near-sold-out event at the Hammer Theatre Center, that the center took strides in bringing major literary events into the urban fabric of downtown San Jose, rather than confining authors to a library » Read More

Being somewhat vain, I fear the candid camera. In fact, I not only favor the posed photo but tend to stick (rather aggressively) to a single pose--the one that doesn't make people wonder whether I eat oats out of a burlap bag. On online dating sites especially, appearance drives whom we choose or lose. Not surprisingly, marketing researcher Jonah Berger reports that "most online contexts," including dating sites, "are dominated by posed photos," as opposed to the candid kind--to the point where the main leisure activity in North America appears to be standing in a bathroom making duck lips for the camera. » Read More

Adriana Martinez and Octavio Guillen got engaged to be married when they were both 15 years old. But they kept delaying a more complete unification for 67 years. At last, when they were 82, they celebrated their wedding and pledged their vows to each other. Are there comparable situations in your life, Aries? The coming months will be a favorable time to make deeper commitments. At least some of your reasons for harboring ambivalence will become irrelevant. You'll grow in your ability to thrive on the creative challenges that come from intriguing collaborations and highly focused togetherness. » Read More

Try as she might to mine her memory of that day, little stood out about the last meal Anneliese Scadden shared with her brother. Five Thanksgiving weekends ago, Scadden and her six siblings met at their parents' Morgan Hill home for their traditional potluck. Her younger brother, Karl Busch, a handyman by trade, wore his usual garb: frayed jeans, a baseball cap and goatee. He kept quiet, but seemed in good spirits despite a recent breakup. That night, or sometime soon after--it's unclear when, exactly--Busch took off with nothing but a knapsack and his white Ford Econoline. Few thought much of his departure at first, until a week passed. Then months. » Read More