CLASSIC MYSTERY PHOTO. I'm guessing that this photo was taken at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cathcart Street. But that's all the info I have. Who is this woman? When was it taken? Most importantly, why doesn't she have her popcorn wagon on Pacific Avenue now? It's a circus down there anyway. photo credit: Unknown, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

A LOCAL NEWSPAPER. It seems like about every five years UCSC's City On A Hill Press catches fire and publishes at least one semester of exciting and promising local news. The current staff is doing an excellent job of putting out an informative weekly paper. Read the news in this week's (Jan. 22) issue about the new digital Media Center that will have a public art center. There's a fine piece on our local Measure F including the all too predictable opposing arguments. See the fine review of Yolanda King's appearance at the Civic. According to CHP it was MTV's encouragement that led to eating or at least frying the Koi last May. Then Michelle Camerlingo wrote an article on "Is Santa Cruz Undergoing a Corporate Makeover? (A look into a new downtown)". There are some serious opinions and questions contained in that article. It would cause riots if it had been in the Sentinel! Read this issue and at least the rest of this semester's. It'll give you hope that there may be a future for print journalism in the USA, IF (big IF) these students writing today can stomach what they'll have to go through to get their principles in print.

MIDDLING MOVIES. Girl With A Pearl Earring is a very strange film. You leave the theatre and realize that the film is similar to popcorn, but good popcorn. That is it looks delicious, but when you analyze it it's all hot air and would compress down to about one tenth of what it looks like. Cotton candy may be a better metaphor. It's very beautifully filmed, too beautiful actually; it takes away from the story. The acting is dutiful but the actors have to do these long silent glances at each other which are meant to convey early Dutch emotions and they end up looking foolish. I'd recommend you see it but only for the joy of looking, not relating, not learning, just looking. Besides that, Scarlett Johansson is better in Lost In Translation. The Butterfly Effect could have been an exciting science fiction thriller, but instead it's another film that feels like it was destroyed by some Hollywood corporate decisions. It would be fun to rent some rainy night if you get a good rental price. Ashton Kutcher is in it, who ever he is. I saw 21 Grams for the second time, and would suggest you do the same. Sean Penn plays Sean Penn and I don't remember him ever playing any other role, but Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts are worth seeing 10 times, and the plot is more intense the second time through. Don't get me wrong, Penn is an excellent actor but he doesn't seem to have much variety.

ANOTHER LOCAL NEWSPAPER. You'll have to look hard, and fast, to find the February 2004 Volume 1, Issue 3 of The Project. It too comes from UCSC's student media center. The Project's purpose is to document and inspire strategic radical actions that are relevant to local, regional, and global socio-economic justice. Articles on state prisons, our paranoid nation, fair trade coffee and could it be fairer?, Dyncorp our privately owned militia, NAFTA and now FTAA and related crises, this issue is an amazing collection of articles that somehow we never get to read in any other paper. Pick up The Project at the 120 Union Coffee House and probably other places too. Deadline for their next issue is February 13 email them at theproject@studentmedia.ucsc.edu.

GOOD OLD NEW MUSIC. Due darned near entirely to Phil Collins never say die attitude Santa Cruz's New Music Works turns 25 this year. Gone are the concerts when Phil would make and put on a robot costume and call himself Artie Nooveaux to change the stage for the next performers but the concerts in the last 25 years have always been exciting. This Saturday New Music Works presents two different concerts. Both are at UCSC's Music Center Recital Hall. The one at 3 p.m. features works by Lou Harrison, Jon Scoville, Fred Firth, Henry Brant, Chris Pratorius, and Allen Strange. It's all music they're calling NMW's Greatest Hits. I've heard them all at past concerts, fine music, simply fine music and it'll be a treat to hear them all again. At 8 p.m. it's Present Pieces: Breaking New Ground. That'll be music by Hyo Shin Na, Amy X Neuberg, Yuji Takahashi, James King and other works by Fred Firth and Allen Strange. If that's not enough there's a dinner party at the Chancellor's house at 5 p.m. with special food, and more music. Tickets are available at the UCSC boxoffice 459-2159. And I imagine there may be some available at the door for the 3 and 8 pm concerts. Go to www.newmusicworks.org for more details. No never mind, I just checked that site out and there are many mistakes. Call 687-0770 for real details.

LOWES AND BEHOLD. So now we have a Lowes Home Improvement Center coming to the Westside where the Wrigley Plant used to be. Because Lowes Home Improvement Centers have the reputation of being a few steps down in quality and service from even Home Depot I went to www.badbusiness.com and checked out Lowes. Try it. You'll read at least 71 entries about how bad Lowes Home Improvement centers are. Well hell you may say, any big business probably has detractors. Sure, but read them anyway. More than that try to convince our City Council to at least examine Lowes operation before giving them the good old Santa Cruz rubber stamp too quickly. How about a minimum of a faux examination before selling out so it won't look too whorish? Maybe look into the complaints about untrained and unskilled employees. Consider the enraged customers telling of Lowes return policies, or their miserable customer service, or selling below code construction supplies, or the rip-off on paint products, how about the deceptive Lowes credit card policies, and then there are many, many former customers really angry about Lowes so called home improvement rebates. As I suggest, look up www.ripoffreport.com then ask just about everybody you know do we want a cheap version of Home Depot? I mean we didn't want a Home Depot so are we that desperate for these tax dollars that we ascend up for every developer? Why doesn't our city council look into ways of making our city into a more efficient daily operation instead of chopping off services? Tough times indeed, but how will our City Council explain this period of selling out for any promise of immediate tax dollars to future generations? Then there's UCSC's purchase of the Texas Instrument plant which is an entirely different story. Much more later.

VRIJEME ZATVARANJA LOKALA. That's Croatian for closing time . I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. -Ludwig Wittgenstein. Assassins! -Arturo Toscanini to his orchestra. Wagner's music is better than it sounds. -Mark Twain. I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial. -Irvin S. Cobb

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.

LOOKING SOUTH ON PACIFIC AVENUE... ...at 7:45 am during 1957. This photo was taken just a minute or two before last week's photo. Leask's Department store is where Urban Outfitters now sits. The Canfield Insurance ad on the left is sort of where Artisan's is located. You can also see the Town Clock in its original location high atop the IOOF building (International Order of Odd Fellows). Even looking hard at the original 8 x 10 glossy I can't see a single franchise business in this photo, except for the Greyhound Bus Office. photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical Photo Collection, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

LONDON NELSON, WHAT'S IN A NAME? I'll be the first to admit that there are more important issues in the world or even Santa Cruz than how we spell LONDON Nelson's name on and in the Community Center with the same name. You and your descendants wouldn't care how your name was spelled on a city tribute after you died would they? And just because we and most of the world spell Cabrilho's name wrong who cares? So what if that world still believes that Cabrilho/Cabrillo was Spanish and not Portuguese? Scholars all over the world argue over how to spell Shakespur. But here in Santa Cruz we did care enough about an early African American neighbor, who left his little savings to the local school children, to name our most successful Community Center after him. So it's no big deal, let's correct the spelling of this well meaning guy just out of kindness. No City Election, no expenditure of City monies, we'll just correct it over a period of time; as stationery needs printing, as cards get printed and when signs get repainted let's just spell it LONDON. We're beginning a little plot to do just that. No volunteers are needed, no money, just good intentions. I'll let you know more after phase one is carried out next week.

PRETTY FAIR FILMS. Along Came Polly is better than you think it is and not as brilliant as it could have been. It stars Ben Stiller and he's almost always good and Jennifer Aniston? Well I don't know much about her but she's ok in this flick too. The film contains just enough parts of plots that could have been developed into an intelligent film that would have meant something. But this film is just barely fun. Go see it if you're really bored waiting for the next caucus. The Cooler is excellent fun. Alec Baldwin almost steals the picture from William H. Macy. Baldwin plays an almost 100% mean guy. But he has some perverse sense of humanness that makes you talk about him after the film is over. After visiting several websites I have concluded that there is no such thing as a Cooler. Maria Bello as the waitress for hire is exactly right for the part. Don't miss this film.

READ JOHN LAIRD'S LETTER. Assemblyman John Laird wrote to BrattonOnline to say that I didn't get the gist of what he was saying when he spoke to the 450 Democrats attending the Democratic caucus. He said a lot about how we need to make careful choices, about how we must participate in government and become better informed. Click here or somewhere to go to the letters to the editor and read John's letter. I'm sorry I cut his speech down to how bad it is in Sacramento and I'll never ever do that again. Especially if it ever gets better in Sacramento. I'm happy to have John as a constant reader and I'm happy to have you as readers too. Don't forget to do a free subscription to BrattonOnline.com so you'll be the first on your block to know what's happening every week.

THE BOARDWALK'S DOUBLE TROUBLE. The Boardwalk Seaside Company has never been known for its sensitivity. Like the Logger's Revenge water ride they pushed through an unaware City Council in the 1970's during one of the worst water shortages Santa Cruz ever experienced. Now their attempt to build a very high rise ride called Double Shot showed their contempt for not just our environment but also for our safety. We are very fortunate the County Planning Commission turned it down. What kind of ride is named after an alcohol drink anyway? No class at all and it sounds cheap. I'm not at all convinced about the killing bird angle however. I've never been able to figure how birds navigate so easily through, in, around trees and bushes and fly plain splat into solid towers&but never mind that. What I'm surprised about is that we never addressed the safety issue about the proposed Double Shot. Tower rides like this one have killed children (as in Marriott's Great America about three years ago. Maybe the County planning commission did look into the safety issue when they denied permission to build this teetering tower of trouble, I hope so. I also hope that the County or the City, or even better the state passes mandatory laws stating that there should be regulated safety inspections of all amusement park rides on a regular basis. Theme parks have fought this state safety inspection forever. Now we read that John Robinson former head pr guy at the Boardwalk is heading an association of California theme parks in Sacramento. Now I'm betting that since the parks are forming this cabal, and since we have Guv Arnie running things we'll see much less state licensing or state inspections of any safety applications such as thrill rides.

MY TOP TEN FILMS. It's hard enough to narrow down the 254 films I saw last year to just ten top films, so don't count how many I have in this list. I could rant on about how this isn't the exact order of my preference, but so what? The Russian Ark, Irreversible, American Splendor, Capturing The Friedmans, 21 Grams, 13, Elephant, Spellbound, Winged Migration, Lost In Translation, In America. There's another category of films I liked that includes; Pirates of The Caribbean, Bad Santa, Talk to Her, Owning Mahowney, Kill Bill, Dirty Pretty Things and The Monster. Please remember that these film choices have absolutely nothing to do with my guesses for the Academy Awards. Unfortunately the Oscars have little relation to quality in films.

EARL'S PEARLS, room change notice!! The audience grows weekly for Earl Jackson's Crossed Signals films at UCSC. Every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. now through February 24 (including some Saturday screenings) Earl is showing films from Asia that you'll never see anywhere else. For example this next Tuesday night he's showing GOZU a new film by Miike Takashi. Takashi directed Audition and Ichi, the Killer. If you saw those films you'll know that Takashi films are not to be trifled with. The real news is that there's been a room change and these free films are in Classroom Unit 1. That's right up the hill behind the old Whole Earth restaurant. You remember the Whole Earth restaurant, right? I ran into Carol Teachout a few weeks ago, she used to run the place. But those were the good old days, and other times. Anyways go to www.anotherscene.com/crossed.html and see Earl's entire schedule. Ignore the Social Sciences location and go to Classroom 1 instead.

TO CLOSE. The reaction to Scott MacClelland's quotes last week was amazing and appreciated. In view of that here are more from Scott. Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it? -Mark Twain. His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork. -Mae West. There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure. -Jack E. Leonard

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.

LOOKING NORTH ON PACIFIC AVENUE at 7:47am DURING 1957. It's only when we see old photos like this one that we realize that it's there's only a few buildings that identify the traditional downtown Santa Cruz left standing. There's the County Bank building shown here the Bank Of America/New Leaf Market, the ID People's Bank Building, The Leonard/Metro building and some few mid block structures. Yes. It has snowed downtown a few times over the years. But it's probably flooded and burned more often. photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical Photo Collection, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

IN LONDON's FAIR CITY. We finished our second of two weeks visiting London December 22. We came back to exactly the same weather as we had there. The most often asked question since returning to Santa Cruz has been how were you treated when they found out you were Americans? Without exception; in book shops, pubs, theatres, shops, everywhere- it was the same. Once they found out we believed Pres. Bush to be a despot, a religious zealot, and that we were embarrassed to have him as our president, we were welcomed as friends. The Brits we encountered are afraid of Bush. They don't like their own Prime Minister Tony Blair sucking up to Bush, and told us many stories of how great Bill Clinton was. The Londoners objected strongly to the huge amount of their own money went to protect Bush during his recent visit. Then they told us how when Clinton was there he and Tony Blair ducked into a pub and had a beer, no protection, just chums. It was incomprehensible to them that Arnold Schwarzenegger was our Governor in California. We couldn't explain it either but did tell as many people as possible that at least our surrounding several counties in Northern California voted against GOV Arnie. I think because it's such a small world now that Londoners know we're all in this together and we ended up having some wonderful discussions, no arguments, just discussions.

MY TOP TEN AND THEN SOME. I've been saying for years that January is the month to decide who your favorite film critics are. Read their annual 10 ten favorites, NOT their picks for Oscars which is a whole different ball game, their personal top ten.

See how many you agree with, that'll give you a much improved chance of whether or not you should see a film. Of course if you disagree with them 100% that's great too and you'll know to never or always go to their choices. Personally this year I found that I agreed with Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times more than any other critic. Even then his and my lists aren't much alike. Next week I'll get in my top ten.

A REAL BIG FISH. Big Fish stars Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Helen Bonham Carter, and especially Mathew McGrory. The film is directed by Tim Burton and it's up to Burton's usual excellent story telling best. I've been waiting to use the word schadenfreude because everybody else has managed to slip it in someplace. So, because we have problems admitting to our schadenfreude we love watching dwarves, giants and psychos in films. (That would be Station Agent, Big Fish and Shine.) So because these folks have to make livings somehow, and sideshows are pretty much over with, we get to stare at Matthew McGrory the giant in Big Fish. Matthew is really only 7 6 and wears a size 29 ½ shoe. Most of the camera angles make him look 15 feet, except at the closing river scene where you can see him at his real height. He's 31 years old, plays the drums and studied law in Pennsylvania where he was born. Go see Big Fish if you like Tim Burton's movie magic.

WHERE's SANTA CRUZ? I never spoke with anyone in London who knew where Santa Cruz was. But many, many Londoners had been to San Francisco. So when you say Santa Cruz is about an hour and a half south - it works. As you can guess San Francisco has a magic city reputation. Londoners would ask questions like we know what the Golden Gate Bridge looks like, and that one end is in San Francisco but where does it go? When you answer Marin, Sausalito, Tiburon, Santa Rosa they just wonder why anyone wants to go to those places. I couldn't answer that one. One guy in a pub got really reminiscent when he told me about being in Lefty O'Doul's restaurant in San Francisco; I'd been there a few times too. Then he got to talking about how much he liked Anchor Steam beer, and this is while we were drinking Guinness on tap. Guinness on tap in England is much different than it is here. On another night a former bartender from Wales went to great lengths to explain how much better Guinness tastes in Ireland than England, and so it goes.

SOME MORE MAINSTREAM FILMS. I covered five mainstream films last week here's four more. Calendar Girls is really a Nickelodeon film. But it's drawing Big Fat Greek Wedding audiences, so there you are. It's cute, not as fun as The Big Monty and Helen Mirren is always good. Wait and rent it. Julia Roberts is the star of Mona Lisa Smile but her co stars Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal make it more of an ensemble work. The film doesn't say or do much, but if you want non challenging laughs go for it AND be sure to stay and see the excellent mini documentary that they show while the closing credits are rolling. P.S. I've seen the trailers (coming attractions) for the new Spiderman about three times now and whew does it look fantastic. I didn't believe the critics about Paycheck being as bad as they said it was. I was wrong, it's worse.

NOTES ABOUT BRATTON BULLETINS. I sent almost the same following paragraph on the Democratic Caucus in a Bratton Bulletin that went out just to subscribers. I'm going to be doing more and more of these bulletins. If you subscribe to Bratton Online which is free, nonbinding, confidential, you'll get these items long before any print media gets to print them. Besides that as the number of subscribers increases the better this website gets!! SANTA CRUZ COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS. The combined efforts of the Democratic Organizations in Santa Cruz County packed The Veterans Memorial building with nearly 500 people last Saturday afternoon. They were there for the very first Democratic Party caucus. Representatives from all nine Democratic candidates were invited; they all showed except from Al Sharpton and Joe Lieberman's camp. 6 minute speeches were given by six candidate's representatives. And each registered attendee was eligible to cast one vote. While we waited for the outcome Sam Farr spoke telling us how bad it is in Washington and then John Laird spoke telling us how bad it is in, Sacramento. So the votes were: Lieberman 0, Gephart 0, Sharpton 1, Moseley-Braun 4, Edwards 6, Kerry 10, Clark 111, Kucinich 126, and the winner Howard Dean 183. Oddly enough Kucinich's coming in second place mirrors what the Moveon.Org. internet statistics showed us. Kucinich also came in second with the California Democratic Council. Something to watch?? In all my 33+ years of working and watching Democratic politics in Santa Cruz County I've never seen as enthusiastic and as large a crowd of Democrats assembled for anything. As Bill Malone, president of the People's Democratic Club of Santa Cruz County stated, The event was organized by the three local Democratic Clubs (North County Democratic Club, Democratic Women's Club and People's Democratic Club of Santa Cruz County) and the S.C. County Central Democratic Committee with the purpose to raise some enthusiasm and unity for Democrats. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. If the energy of this event is any indication, I have no doubt that a Democrat will be moving into the White House next January.

REALLY EXCELLENT FILMS. Be sure to see 21 Grams. It has great acting by Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro. It too has a non linear plot and a tiny bit of schadenfreude but that's good news. It's also on all the best top ten lists. Then there's In America a very different immigrating to America story. This one is positive, upbeat and even not too patriotic, it could be anywhere. You'll love it, but go quickly it's leaving soon. Pieces of April is supposed to be a wry comedy. I had many problems with Patricia Clarkson's role. She did some fine acting, but her part was unbelievable. And see it anyways. Monster has Charlize Theron doing the best acting role she'll ever get in her lifetime. You've read all about how she gained 30 pounds, went through a horrific makeup job and almost made this film single handedly. She deserves a very special Academy award but I'll bet she doesn't get anything except a nomination and probably not even that. Well the Golden Globes will give her something since they sort of appear to work underhandedly with the Academy. One of my two big surprises and delights of the recent films is the new Peter Pan. It is incredible, superb, marvelous, etc. James M. Barrie devotees say it is also the most true to the book version ever filmed. The absolutely clever, sophisticated lines, the near the surface sexual content, the artistic use of special effects and the first time casting of a young boy as Peter makes it a classic. To drop a name I was/am friends with Betty Bronson's son. Betty was the silent film star who played Peter in the 1924 silent film version that also starred Anna May Wong but you knew that right? I had dinner at Betty's home a few times, she was not only charming but since her husband was a big name in the vitamin-food supplement business it was the first time I was served a basket full of pill bottles to chose from before we ate. But there was definitely no schadenfreude no siree, you can bet on that. The other total delight is The Triplets of Belleville. This is still another new and inventive use of animation. Definitely not Disney, not anime, not Toy Story - it's something else. You'll see and hear references to Django Reinhardt, Josephine Baker, the Boswell Sisters, it is pure fun and crazy and don't even think about describing the plot. It's near genius quality.

FIN. If you're planning on going to any caucuses or are waiting to see what happens in Iowa, here are some quotes to use while you're waiting for the votes to be counted. He has Van Gogh's ear for music. -Billy Wilder. He loves nature in spite of what it did to him. -Forrest Tucker. He has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered his soul. -David Lloyd George. We are deeply indebted to Scott MacClelland for these little gems.

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.

THE REAL COOPERHOUSE. This Richardsonian Romanesque revival style County Courthouse building was constructed in 1894. States John Chase in his The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture book (1979 Paper Vision Press). Max Walden made this original County Courthouse into what you see here. The 1989 earthquake did some damage to it but developers did more, and tore this grand structure down to take advantage of FEMA money. The City Council allowed them to do this instead of rebuilding. Now we have that stucco palace at the corner of Pacific and Cooper. photo credit: from personal collection, click for bigger version. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

LONDON LOG. I learned many things during my trip to London three weeks ago. The first thing is: don't expect to find the same airline sale prices online that you saw in the paper. I found one way to London on United for $164 in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was only after endless and fruitless hours searching on the internet for that price that I gave up. I called United, the woman there spent nearly a half hour searching her files and she finally found that price, it wasn't easy even for her. So if you see a fantastic price in print, keep that ad with the date, and call the airline directly. And be patient but real firm, and you'll probably get it but do it the same day you see the ad.

BEFORE I FORGET IT. Go see Frans Lanting's new gallery out on the Westside at 207 McPherson Street. It is one more example of how Frans and Chris Eckstrom always do things right. The gallery itself is an accomplishment but Frans' photos have never looked better. You should take every visitor there. Another fine touch is that Frans uses local businesses such as Joe Levine's Calypso photography and Hutton Sherer Marketing to make the gallery and his photos beautiful. Go to www.lanting.com to get more details.

NEW JOB. Chuck Hilger the former executive director of MAH (Museum of Art and History) for at least the last 84 years now has a new position - he started as the executive director of Habitat For Humanity. Habitat has recently received some new funding and has big plans for our area. Chuck is the guy who can carry them out. How he managed to keep the Art and History groups from killing each other and still work together in creating the new combined MAH facility after the earthquake will go down in our local history books as a near miracle.

OSCAR TIME. As you probably know in order for a film to qualify for a nomination for an Oscar it must be a feature film. That means: 1) it has to be more than 40 minutes long, 2) must have been shot in 35 or 70mm or a qualifying digital format 3) must have opened in a commercial theatre for paid admission in Los Angeles County between January 1 and December 31, 2003, 4) must have run for seven consecutive days and must have received its first public exhibition only as a theatrical motion picture. Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday, January 27, 2004. The Academy Awards will be televised Sunday February 29 starting at 5 p.m. on ABC our time, with a half hour arrival segment.

SANCTIFYING CINEMA. Since returning from London I've seen ten of the finest films ever. Five from Hollywood, and five not. These five are from Hollywood. Next week I'll cover the ones not from Hollywood, which are much better. Cold Mountain, the big deal Southern saga starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger is exactly that, a saga. It kept reminding me of Gone With The Wind with Zellweger playing a cross between Gaby Hayes and Butterfly McQueen. According to book reading friends, it's a far cry from the book and suffers in the translation but go see it if only for the battle scenes. Lord of The Rings part three ends the trilogy in a most satisfying way. I read those books, saw the first two films, and still couldn't remember who half the names are. Thank the Lords for digital effects. Other than animation I can't imagine any other way to put Tolkien on the big screen, and it works. Something's Gotta Give or, as some critic called it, Granny Hall, stars Diane Keaton battling it out with Jack Nicholson. She's cute, he's cute, Keanu Reeves is cute and Amanda Peet is cute. This is one cute movie. If you're into Hollywood Cute see it twice. The House of Sand and Fog stars Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly is just awful. It's contrived, unbelievable, and you can't possibly care about either of the leads lives. Kingsley of course creates one of his nearly monumental Hollywood characters as always, but aside from that don't let them rip you off, stay away. Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai is another one of those Hollywood monster pieces. All show biz, not much acting, no depth. At the box office prices nowadays I wouldn't recommend it.

EARL JACKSON RETURNS. Earl Jackson Jr. is returning from The University of Hawaii's East West Center and will present one of his quite creative film series starting Tuesday January 13. The title of the series is Crossing Signals. He'll screen Beijing Opera Blues (Tsui Hark) 1/13, Too Young To Die (Park Jin-pyo) 1/20, What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang) 1/27, Gozuiike Takashi 2/3, Chicken Poets (Meng) 2/10, TBA 2/17, Oblatan (Yuhyun-mok) 2/24. There'll be some Saturday screenings. All the films are free. There's no enrollment, no tests, just great films you wouldn't see elsewhere and mostly USA premieres. They'll be shown at UCSC's Social Sciences II building room 159at 7 p.m. Earl will only be here for this one semester, he's been invited to teach at the Korean University of the Arts in Seoul in the spring. So this is a rare chance to experience one of Earl's wildly imaginative film series. You don't have to attend them all just drop in to see the ones you like or are curious about. I'll save you a seat.

SHAKESPEARE RETURNS TOO. Don Young and Jeff Towle have once again organized a Shakespeare Club Series. This time they're going to study King Lear. Don and Jeff discuss, act out, and put much effort into studying works by Shakespeare. I've attended at least three of these five part study groups and have gained much insight into what the Bard probably had in mind. The Club will meet Saturday February 28 and every Saturday in March in the community room of the Aptos library starting at 10am and going to noon. They're free, fun and absolutely no pressure. Call 662-0302 for more information, I'll save you a seat here too.

ABOUT MAYA BEISER. Maya is a cello player. And the dimensions she adds to playing the cello and the composers whose works she plays makes her one of the most talked about musicians anywhere. She'll be performing at UCSC's Music Center Recital Hall Sunday, January 11 at 7 p.m. ( That's 7 p.m., I don't know why 7, but it's 7.) She'll play works by Steve Reich, David Lang, Osvaldo Golijov, Arvo Part, and Louis Andriessen. It sounds a little woo-woo, but she does claim to channel the music. It's part performance art and part music. Get tickets asap by calling UCSC's ticket office at 459-2159. I can't save you a seat here because they're reserved, but I'll meet you there - it's at 7 remember.

QUOTES TO CLOSE WITH. Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. -Napoleon Bonaparte. God Is A Comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. -Voltaire. If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. -J. Paul Getty.

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.