While I usually complain about the ridiculous rent I pay to share a room in a small apartment in Westwood, there’s nothing like a trip home over the holidays to make me appreciate it. Read more...

As I sat in Brenna Youngblood’s studio among thousands of photo clippings, observing what has emerged from the chaos, she apologized for the mess. “Write that it was pristine,” she said with a short laugh. Read more...

One interesting part of winter break is poking around one’s old room and finding things from the past. Typically, I find old books and pictures, along with Post-it notes on which I used to write down things that struck me as clever (like trying to phonetically transcribe “awesome guitar riffs,” most of which turn out to have been bass lines). Read more...

Model. Actress. The face of Air Madagascar. Somehow adding “local independent musician” to that list doesn’t seem to fit, but singer/songwriter Maylin Pultar is full of surprises. Read more...

“Brokeback Mountain” Directed by Ang Lee Focus Features Gay cowboys. Yes, that is the premise of “Brokeback Mountain,” Ang Lee’s new film about the solitude and anguish felt by victims of desperate isolation in a suddenly changing world. Read more...

“The Family Stone” Directed by Thomas Bezucha 20th Century Fox The members of the eponymous family of “The Family Stone” fit liberal stereotypes to a T, though they may stop short of being the “left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers” described in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” A staple of almost every holiday movie is the dysfunctional family, but few have been as unbelievable as this one, led by “Annie Hall” co-star Diane Keaton. Read more...

“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” Directed by Tommy Lee Jones Sony Pictures Classics When Mike and Lou Ann Norton move into their new trailer home, the window looks out onto a dusty road and a sign that reads, “Liberty means freedom from high interest rates.” It sounds stupid, like a crooked salesman’s way of conniving some sorry sucker, but the idea resonates throughout the film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” Freedom in this film ““ written by Guillermo Arriaga (“21 Grams,” “Amores Perros”) and the first directed by Tommy Lee Jones ““ is about many things: the freedom of an outlaw, the freedom of the dead, the freedom of moving away, the freedom of having an affair. Read more...