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

Given the current political crises, it's hard to see films by the new generation of directors following Jafar Panahi (This Is Not a Film), Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Kandahar) or Abbas Kiarostami (A Taste of Cherry, Certified Copy). Bretow notes, "We were surprised to find out that many American moviegoers weren't familiar with the renown of Iran's national cinema ... With The Night, we wanted to make something that honored that authentic humanity. Like the Iranian cinema that has come before it, The Night doesn't wear all of its secrets on the surface. We set out to create a film layered in meaning." » 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

It's not a bird. It's not a plane. And it's definitely not Superman. But on the right side of Enrique Chagoya's canvas, you can make out part of the Man of Steel's familiar logo. SUPER is spelled out in the familiar block lettering but the word is reversed (REPUS) and falling off the chest of a Frankenstein-like figure. The face doesn't belong to Kal-El, the comic-book alien sent to Earth from Krypton. It's a jumble of seven or eight faces collaged together. Supergirl's cape is flying freely behind her back but the logo covers her face and upper torso. Superman himself does make an appearance. He's flying straight into the "S" but you can only catch a glimpse of one full leg and both of his red ankle boots as they disappear upwards. » Read More

I could spend my entire life speaking in blurbs, in sound bites. I think that's from enjoying the media and always reading how journalism takes something and makes it appealing to everybody. There was a headline in the New York Post the other day when Dr. Fauci threw out the first ball at the baseball game: "Catch This." It was so funny. That's the kind of thing that, I don't know, you need media training. I mean, I start my day with about eight newspapers. » Read More

As I stand at Olivia de Havilland's former doorstep in Saratoga, I imagine the ghosts. De Havilland, who passed away of natural causes at her Paris residence on July 26, was the final surviving star from Gone With the Wind, and at 104 was one of the last actors left from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She grew up along with her actress sister, Joan Fontaine, in a Tudor Revival-style house not too far from the main crossroads of downtown Saratoga. A quaint two-story residence with a large backyard, the house retains most of the original architectural design, workmanship and materials, but upon my arrival it looks abandoned. » Read More

In her book Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones, Stephanie Rose Bird reports that among early African Americans, there were specialists who spoke the language of trees. These patient magicians developed intimate relationships with individual trees, learning their moods and rhythms, and even exchanging non-verbal information with them. Trees imparted wisdom about herbal cures, weather patterns and ecologically sound strategies. Until recently, many scientists might have dismissed this lore as delusion. But in his 2016 book The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben offers evidence that trees have social lives and do indeed have the power to converse. I've always said that you Aries folks have great potential to conduct meaningful dialogs » Read More

Her home turf is the Rancho San Vicente area off McKean Road, a still-wild territory steeped in historical treachery, murder and betrayal related to the quicksilver mines that are rich in opportunity for Clendenen to fuse her passion for nature writing with a penchant for stories about powerful mother figures. "MINE," her new book about the life of Maria Zacarias Bernal de Berreyesa, who was born in 1791 and at age 14 married Jose de los Reyes Berreyesa, weaves all of that together. » Read More