By the second week, those fears were confirmed as the organizers of the festival in San Jose and Redwood City pulled the plug, Covid-19 cases increased and public health officials forbade gatherings. A year later, the festival returns, this time fully virtual, from March 20 to 30 with 199 films and shows from 55 countries, most of which will be available to stream throughout the festival. Another 13 "Spotlight" events will punctuate the festival with Zoom Q&As and "red carpet" interviews with filmmakers and actors and peeks at rough cuts. » Read More

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

As society begins to reemerge, so too has discussion about the shameful treatment of female celebrities over the last two decades and beyond. In recent years, Britney Spears, Megan Fox, Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson have all spoken out about their mistreatment by the press and public. With each story, new heartbreaking admissions illuminate the abuse these women and others faced in the endless churn of celebrity. » Read More

This June, Reed won its first Pushcart Prize, a national award for small presses considered "the most honored literary project in America." The selected poem was "Father's Belt," an intense and emotionally complex work by former Onion and McSweeny's writer Kurt Luchs. "Father's Belt" appeared in Reed Issue 153. Released toward the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, with all content chosen in 2019, the issue serves as something of a "time capsule," Smith says. Throughout 2019, Reed had made a renewed outreach to literary presences throughout the Bay Area, holding events with San Francisco's Litquake and SJSU's own Legacy of Poetry Festival. » Read More

Like many traveling exhibits, the Cantor Arts Center's When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art spent months in the planning. Starting as a mockup in 3-D software, it morphed continuously over the bumpy ride of re-thinkings and adaptations driven by Covid-19. » Read More

That's proven true once again in the pandemic. Virtual poetry workshops sprang up in response to the physical and emotional confinement of Covid-19. The Hope Storytelling Project was one successful movement, founded during the early quarantine by two Harvard students who said they were inspired by the need "to share the therapeutic power of poetry" and "create a sense of solace and community." Vermont-based poet James Crews, co-host of an online webinar I've been attending, says that one reason poetry has provided solace this year is because it's a powerful medium for working through change. » Read More

Next week will see the 40th anniversary of a legendary goal George Best scored at Spartan Stadium when playing for the original San Jose Earthquakes in the old North American Soccer League. For decades now, journalists, biographers, commentators, coaches and fans around the world have discussed that goal, in which Best angrily went past half the Fort Lauderdale team all by himself on July 22, 1981. Millions have watched it on YouTube. I attended that game as a kid, and even I feel like I've watched it a million times. » Read More

In his poem "Litany," Aries poet Billy Collins testifies that he is "the sound of rain on the roof." He also claims to be "the moon in the trees, the paper blowing down an alley, the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table, and the shooting star." He does make it clear, however, that he is not "the bread and the knife" on the table, nor the "crystal goblet and the wine." What about you, Aries? What are all the earthy and fiery phenomena that you are? Are you, as Billy Collins suggests, "the dew on the morning grass and the burning wheel of the sun and the marsh birds suddenly in flight"? Now would be an excellent time to dream up your own version of such colorful biographical details. » Read More

It's the same highway traversed by hippie mystics and dharma bums, the one Hunter S. Thompson cruised up and down on his beastly Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle during late nights of insomnia. The asphalt Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters traveled in their notorious psychedelic bus, dispensing alternate realities to unsuspecting normies with beatnik wisdom and LSD-laced Kool Aid. » Read More