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Amid the fusillade of terrible headlines this year, one pierced my nerdy heart.

“Enjoying this headline? You’re a rarity: Reading for pleasure is declining …” was the topper to a story by my colleague Hailey Branson-Potts in August. Pleasure reading among American adults fell more than 40% in two decades — a continuation of a trend going back to the 1940s.

I get it. We don’t want to read for fun when we’re trying to wade through the sewer of information we find online and make sense of our terrible political times. But as Tyrion Lannister, the wily hero of George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” series, said, “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”

So for my annual holiday columna recommending great books about Southern California, I’m sticking to formats that lend themselves to easier reading — bite-size jewels of intellect, if you will. Through essays, short stories, poems and pictures, each of my suggestions will bring solace through the beauty of where we live and offer inspiration about how to double down on resisting the bad guys.

“California Southern: Writing From the Road, 1992-2025” by LAist reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez.

(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’s warm voice has informed Angelenos about arts, politics and education for 25 years on what was long called KPCC and now goes by LAist 89.3. What most listeners might not know is that the Mexico City native first earned acclaim as a founder of Taco Shop Poets, an influential San Diego collective that highlighted Chicano writers in a city that didn’t seem to care for them.

Guzman-Lopez lets others delve into that history in the intro and forerward to “California Southern: Writings from the Road, 1992-2025.” Reading the short anthology, it quickly becomes clear why his audio dispatches have always had a prose-like quality often lacking among public radio reporters, whose delivery tends to be as dry as Death Valley.

In mostly English but sometimes Spanish and Spanglish, Guzman-Lopez takes readers from the U.S.-Mexico border to L.A., employing the type of lyrical bank shots only a poet can get away with. I especially loved his description of Silver Lake as “two tax brackets away/From Salvatrucha Echo Park.” Another highlight is contained in “Trucks,” where Guzman-Lopez praises the immigrant entrepreneurs from around the world who come to L.A. and name their businesses after their hometowns.

“Say these names to praise the soil,” he writes. “Say these names to document the passage. Say these names to remember the trek.”

Guzman-Lopez has been doing readings recently with Lisa Alvarez, who published her first book, “Some Final Beauty and Other Stories,” after decades of teaching English — including to my wife back in the 1990s! — at Irvine Valley College.

The L.A. native did the impossible for someone who rarely delves into made-up stories because the real world is fantastical enough: She made me not just read fiction but enjoy it.

Alvarez’s debut is a loosely tied collection centered on progressive activists in Southern California, spanning a seismic sendoff for someone who fought during the Spanish Civil War and a resident of O.C.’s canyon country tipping off the FBI about her neighbor’s participation in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Author, activist and Irvine Valley College professor Lisa Alvarez holds a copy of her short story collection “Some Final Beauty and Other Stories.”

(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

Most of the protagonists are women, brought to life through Alvarez’s taut, shining sentences. Memories play a key role — people loved and lost, places missed and reviled. A nephew remembers how his uncle landed in an FBI subversives file after attending a Paul Robeson speech in South L.A. shortly after serving in the Navy in World War II. An L.A. mayor who seems like a stand-in for Antonio Villaraigoisa considers himself “the crafty and cool voice of one who sees his past and future in terms of chapters in a best-selling book” as he tries to convince a faded movie star to come down from a tree during a protest.

To paraphrase William Faulkner about the South, the past is never dead in Southern California — it isn’t even past.

While Alvarez is a first-time author, D.J. Waldie has written many books. The Livy of Lakewood, who has penned important essays about L.A. history and geography for decades, has gathered some of his recent efforts in “Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.”

A lot of his subjects — L.A.’s mother tree, pioneering preacher Aimee Semple McPherson, the first Hass avocado — are tried-and-true terrain for Southern California writers. But few of us can turn a phrase like Waldie. On legendary Dodger broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín, he writes, “The twin cities of Los Angeles and Los Ángeles, evoked by [their] voices … may seem to be incommensurate places to the unhearing, but the borders of the two cities are porous. Sound travels.”

Man, I wish I would have written that.

“Elements of Los Angeles” is worth the purchase, if only to read “Taken by the Flood,” Waldie’s account of the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster that killed at least 431 people — mostly Latinos — and destroyed the career of L.A.’s water godfather, William Mulholland. The author’s slow burn of the tragic chronology, from Mulholland’s famous “There it is. Take it” quote when he unleashed water from the Owens Valley in 1913 to slake the city’s thirst, to how L.A. quickly forgot the disaster, compounds hubris upon hubris.

But then, Waldie concludes by citing a Spanish-language corrido about the disaster: “Friends, I leave you/with this sad song/and with a plea to heaven/For those taken by the flood.”

The ultimate victims, Waldie argues, are not the dead from the St. Francis Dam but all Angelenos for buying into the fatal folly of Mullholland’s L.A.

“Elements of Los Angeles” was published by Angel City Press, a wing of the Los Angeles Public Library that also released “Cruising J-Town: Japanese American Car Culture in Los Angeles.”

Cal State Long Beach sociology professor Oliver Wang offers a powerhouse of a coffee table book by taking what could have easily sold as a scrapbook of cool images and grounding it in the history of a community that has seen the promise and pain of Southern California like few others.

We see Japanese Americans posing in front of souped-up imports, reveling in SoCal’s kustom kulture scene of the 1960s, standing in front of a car at a World War II-era incarceration camp and loading up their gardening trucks at a time when they dominated the landscaping industry.

“One can read entire histories of American car culture and find no mention of Japanese or Asian American involvement,” Wang writes — but that’s about as pedantic as “Cruising J-Town” gets.

The rest is a delight that zooms by like the rest of my recs. Drop the doomscrolling for a day, make the time to read them all and become a better Southern Californian in the process. Enjoy!

When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question. Would he be interested in taking four months off from school in Michigan to come out west, drive around, and take pictures of the state’s poor and working-class populations? An eager Turnley jumped at the chance and ended up spending the summer of 1975 traversing California in his tiny white Volkswagen, doing everything from spending time with migrant farmworkers in the San Joaquin valley to hopping trains with travelers looking for work to chatting up Oaklanders about how they were making ends meet.

But then his OEO contact left mid-project and, while Turnley says he submitted a set of prints to the department, they never ended up seeing the light of day. That will all change Dec. 4, when the pictures — along with others the news photographer has taken in his current hometown, Paris — will go on display at the Leica Gallery in L.A.

Why did California’s OEO think of you for this project back in 1975?

When I was a freshman in college at the University of Michigan, during the winter break, I went back to Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is where I’m from. There was a very progressive mayor in power at that point and he assembled a really interesting group of people in his city government.

When I began photography at the age of 16, I decided to use it to try to change the world, and I particularly admired photographers that had used photography to affect public policy, like the Farm Security Administration photographers in the 1930s, which included people like Dorothea Lange. So I convinced this mayor to hire me to shoot pictures for the city of Fort Wayne on the themes that the city was making policy around.

During that time, I met a woman who was the public affairs officer for the city of Fort Wayne. Unbeknownst to me, two years later she moved out to California and that’s how I got a letter at the end of my sophomore year of college asking me if I would be willing to come out to California to do a four-month road trip to document the lives of the working class and the poor of California. She explained to me that the Office of Economic Opportunity needed to make a report that underlined its efforts in trying to help the the poor of California, and that they they wanted to use these photographs as a way to illustrate that report.

I was given some very basic statistics of pockets of poverty around the state of California, but no other specific direction, and I was promised just enough money to cover fleabag hotels and diner food and gasoline. I was given access to a government darkroom in Sacramento, where occasionally I would go to develop film and make contact sheets and prints, but otherwise, I was out, driving to every corner of the state.

What were your impressions of the state before you came, as someone originally from the Midwest?

I didn’t grow up on a farm [in Indiana] but I knew a little bit about farming and what really struck me when I went out to California was what I think most of the world doesn’t really realize, and that is that [much] of the state is agricultural and rural. In many ways, the San Joaquin Valley felt a whole lot more like Indiana than almost any other place I could imagine.

What did you take away from the project as a whole?

One of the aspects of this body of work that fascinates me and that I guess in some ways I’m very proud of is that one feels in the photography and in the connection with people an almost innocent and authentic view. The pictures are very direct. They’re very human and they really deal with the lives of people, because you’re looking into their eyes and getting close to them.

Another thing that struck me was that because I was dealing particularly with people that were working class or often very poor, that there was something very similar in terms of people’s plight, whether they were living in urban areas or in the countryside. Everyone I met seemed like really decent, good, hard-working people that just wanted a better life for themselves and their family. They wanted to survive with dignity, and I felt that we all owe these people a great sense of debt.

I also remember that when I spent some time with hobos — and I’m not sure if that’s a pejorative word today, but they’re a little different category of people than simply those who are homeless. Hobos were most often men that chose this lifestyle to ride the trains and stop and work in various places. But I remember being in a boxcar with four men and all four were pretty much like everyone else. It was just that their lives had kind of crossed over a line into the margins, just by a thread. And I remember realizing at this young age just how fragile life is, or how close we can be to that line at almost any time.

Something I found striking in these pictures is how little has changed, in some ways. There have always been people working in California’s fields that are underpaid and underappreciated, and in some ways, things have only gotten worse for a lot of that population.

During COVID, I lived in New York City and every day for three months from the very first day of the lockdown, I went out and I walked. I would meet people and I would ask them three questions: What was their name, their age, and how were they making it? And then after three months, I went back to Paris, and I walked the streets there and did the same thing, ultimately making a book of the pictures I took from that time called “A New York-Paris Visual Diary: The Human Face Of Covid-19.”

But the thing that struck me during COVID was that it was the working class of New York that saved all of our lives. There were whole walls of buildings on the Upper West Side that were dark at night because everyone had gone to the Hamptons or left New York, but the people that saved our lives were cashiers, postal workers, FedEx workers, nurses, doctors, medics, ambulance drivers and mostly working-class people. And looking back, I had this hope that maybe when the COVID crisis was over, that we would rectify in a general way how we looked at our society and how we value the people that are actually doing the work in our society, but in actuality, once the lockdown was over, we just went back to being ruled and led by people that have a lot of money. And, really, the well-to-do of California and the rest of the world would never go and pick their own strawberries.

Have you kept in touch with anyone whose picture you took in 1975, or heard from anyone after the fact?

I’ve for sure wondered what happened to all the people in the pictures, but unfortunately over all these years, I’ve never had contact with anyone. It would be absolutely amazing if somebody from that time would come out of the woodwork.

You’ve been a working photographer for over 50 years now, having worked in 90 countries, taking 40 covers for Newsweek, and shooting many of the last century’s most important geopolitical events. Are there moments you still can’t believe you saw, or pictures you can’t believe you took?

Well, just this morning, I signed the prints that will be in this exhibit and they’re really beautiful. They’re made in Paris and they’re traditional silver gelatin prints, beautiful quality. But I held up one of the images from The Other California – 1975, and it was this Okie, a guy that was born during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma and moved out to California. Looking at that image today, looking in the eyes and the face of this man, I really had the impression that — even though it’s my own photograph — that I was looking at one of Dorothea Lange’s photographs. I’m very proud of the fact that there’s a continuity of that kind of attention to the heart of people’s lives in my work.

In this modern era of digital photography, on the one hand I think it’s wonderful that everyone is making photographs now more than ever before. On the other hand, I think that the world of photography has moved away from real powerful, direct human connection. And to me, that’s what’s most important. I’m a lot more interested in life than I am in photography. I mean, I care a lot about photography. I love beautiful photographs, and I try to take them as well as possible, but what’s most important to me are the themes of life that I photograph and at the center of all that is emotion.

The imposing Beaux-Arts mansion at the Huntington in San Marino, designed at the start of the 20th century by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, first opened to the public in 1928, just for a few weekday afternoon hours, following the deaths of founders Arabella and Henry E. Huntington. (They’re buried out on the lawn.) The railroad, shipbuilding and real estate tycoon (1850-1927) and his wife (1850-1924) were sometimes said to be America’s wealthiest couple, equivalent to billionaires today when their fortune is adjusted for inflation, and they had been spending lavishly on art for two decades. Their nonprofit was founded in 1919, partly to take advantage of brand new income tax deductions for charities, a government novelty lessening what was surely a hefty annual federal assessment, plus eventual estate taxes. For more than 30 years after it opened, their grand house-museum held the best art collection — by far — that the suburban Los Angeles public could see.

The Huntington’s Art Museum, once home to Henry and Arabella Huntington, boasts a large collection of European, American and East Asian art.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. has seen various major art museums blossom since the 1960s, but the Huntington collection is still enormously impressive. The centerpiece is European paintings, sculptures and decorative arts — especially 18th century British and, secondarily, French — while American art claims maturing depth. (Chinese and Japanese art holdings are modest.) A 2021 acquisitions partnership with the Ahmanson Foundation is bringing major additions, so far including exceptional paintings by Francisco Goya and Thomas Cole.

What follows is a selection of 22 works, chosen from the mansion and the Virginia Scott Steele Galleries for American Art, a short walk away. (The art’s locations are noted as “M1” or “M2” for the mansion’s two floors, or “S” for the Steele.) Note, however, that this is most definitely not a “best of” list. Some works would surely turn up on such a selection, but the aim here is instead to give an idea of the diverse pleasures that will be found throughout the place. The list is in chronological order.

So much can happen in seven minutes of football.

Carson proved that on Saturday night in the City Section Open Division championship game, scoring five touchdowns in a 7:05 span of the second quarter to produce a 36-0 shutout of Crenshaw at Southwest College.

After a scoreless first quarter, Zach Brock broke several tackles on a 12-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter, opening the floodgates for the No. 1-seeded Colts (10-3).

Chris Fields III connected with Royal Moore on a 46-yard touchdown and the two-point conversion made it 15-0 at the 7:32 mark. Darren Panton returned a punt 28 yards for another touchdown with 6:20 left in the stanza and recovered a fumble at the Crenshaw 22 two plays later, setting up Craig Walker’s reverse that made it 29-0. Panton ended the scoring barrage with a 23-yard interception return 4:46 before halftime.

“We saw in the first quarter that they were overly aggressive and if we gave them a fake, they’d bite on it,” said Fields, who completed eight of 15 passes for 147 yards with an interception and ran seven times for 38 yards. “I just took advantage of what the defense gave me. Darren’s punt return sealed the deal.”

Carson sacked Cougars quarterback Danniel Flowers four times in the first half — two of those by end Kingston Sula and one each by Derric Myers and Xavier Allen — and forced him into several other hurried throws. Flowers, who made several clutch throws in the semifinals at Birmingham, was held to four-of-10 passing for 37 yards in the first half Saturday while running back Joshua Jones had 11 yards in five carries by intermission.

Carson High receiver Royal Moore sprints down the sideline on his way to a 46-yard touchdown against Crenshaw in the City Section Open Division final Saturday night.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Eric Myers finished with 88 yards in 18 carries to keep the chains moving for the Colts, who claimed their 12th City crown and first since winning Division I in 2003 under coach John Aguirre, who later became City Section commissioner.

Carson moved to within one of second-place Banning on the all-time titles list. Manual Arts holds the record with 17.

“This is a testament to these kids and how hard they work,” first-year coach William Lowe said. “They have good practice habits on the field and in the weight room and are mentally tough. Any play can win or lose a game and when good things happen we try to build on that.”

The sixth-seeded Cougars (10-2) were vying for their seventh City title since 1991. Terrence Whitehead has served as interim head coach all season in the absence of longtime coach Robert Garrett (the winningest football coach in section history with 300 wins to his credit), who is on administrative leave.

“Chris has grown in leaps and bounds,” Lowe said of Fields. “I credit all of my coaches. Our defensive alignment allows the kids to play fast and physical and we were battle-tested despite some tough losses early in the year.”

I was sure the magic in me had died long ago, as a burned out 35-year-old dad – so was the hype over the ‘most magical place on earth’ even real?

As a sceptical 35-year-old and rapidly approaching my grumpy dad era, I wasn’t convinced that the Disney magic would win me over on a recent trip to Walt Disney World.

Well, I was about to very quickly be proven wrong. As I touched down in Florida, I was sure that I’d be the quietly excited, loudly exhausted adult that looked forward only to the thrill rides and breakfast buffets.

I’m getting used to being wrong; Walt Disney World isn’t just for kids. It sneakily rewires grouchy grown-ups, too.

Somewhere between a zippy run on the first ride of the trip – a hello-goodbye to Dinosaur before it closes for good in February 2026 – and an unexpectedly emotional meet-cute with Eeyore at the Crystal Palace’s character dining experience, the magic found me once again. It’s not just the experiences either; I couldn’t help but be swept up by the infectious enthusiasm of other parkgoers.

READ MORE: Disneyland Paris confirms Frozen land opening date – and we got a first lookREAD MORE: I was one of first onboard Disney’s new cruise ship – one thing was instantly obvious

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge was my base, with its huge beds and views of giraffes from the rooms. After keeping jet lag at bay and sinking into the first full night of sleep I’ve enjoyed since becoming a parent three years ago, I was ready for my first taste of Disney magic and headed to Animal Kingdom park. (Walt Disney World is actually made up of four theme parks; Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom).

The new Zootopia experience, ‘Better Zoogether!’ set the tone for the rest of the week. Launching just as Zootopia 2 hit cinemas, the attraction was a sugar rush of fun, silliness and wholesome humour. I found myself unable to resist chuckling along and wasn’t ready for some of the clever effects that made for some fun surprises (I won’t spoil them here though!).

Next on the itinerary was a trip to the themed Pandora – The World of Avatar, where I was taken aback. The spectacular surroundings immersed me in a land unlike any other experience I’d had before.

That ended up being the theme of the week; every attraction had its own way of absorbing you in the world it represented and the story it told the guests. In World of Avatar, the visually stunning Na’vi River Journey and then the truly groundbreaking Avatar: Flight of Passage were great examples of how you can get swept into those worlds.

READ MORE: I went to Disney’s private island for a day – I wasn’t ready for what was on offerREAD MORE: I’ve been to Disney World 12 times but the Black Friday price is so good I’m booking again

A self-professed fan of all things from a galaxy far, far away, I was always going to enjoy the attractions in Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars themed land, but Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was arguably the best of the narrative-driven attractions I’ve ever been on. Each time I thought the ride was either ending or taking a certain direction, it both physically and thematically shifted.

Wandering around these massive playgrounds built to resemble the stunning worlds of blockbuster movies was the one thing I was most excited for. They lived up to the hype and then some – seeing the Millennium Falcon in Galaxy’s Edge, not knowing it was coming, literally took my breath away.

But there was another heartwarming feeling I didn’t expect. I was transported back to my younger self. All of the characters wandering the resort – whether it was Kylo Ren, Buzz Lightyear or the various Disney Princesses – encapsulated all the charm and wonder I felt as a boy.

Is this what it feels like to be a ‘Disney adult’? If it wasn’t, then the shows – including the delightfully camp Villains: Unfairly Ever After – and stunning fireworks displays got me as close to becoming one as I’m ever likely to.

The thrill rides too were truly brilliant – the Tower of Terror was my personal favourite, offering a unique adrenaline rush that I couldn’t help but laugh the whole way through, and TRON Lightcycle/Run was as fast and exhilarating as you’d expect. As a huge Marvel fan, the Guardians of the Galaxy ride lived up to the hype – not even a touch of motion sickness could dampen the feel-good vibes.

Then there’s the food. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to come to a theme park and enjoy fine dining. But tastes and smells of culinary excellence from across the world were truly astounding here. From the uniquely moorish bread at The Boathouse in Disney Springs – if you know, you know – to the opulent Hollywood Brown Derby’s upscale dinners, you don’t have to simply eat fast food all week. But if you choose to, the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater restaurant in Hollywood Studios has a unique diner experience.

But the most magical experience of the week had to be the Happily Ever After fireworks display. Being sat in front of Cinderella Castle as the night sky engulfed everything around it became a spectacular memory I’ll never lose. The combination of a medley of Disney’s greatest uplifting musical numbers and a truly impressive fireworks show made for a surprisingly emotional evening.

It was at this point that I truly shed the stressful reality of modern life as a father of two – all the pressures melted away as I got lost in the wonder. Well played Mickey Mouse, well played.

Just another theme park? Not on your life. I’m completely converted and can see why some people will return for holiday after holiday; the magic within me was relit all over again.

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Nicholas Fonseca snared a tipped ball in the end zone for a 39-yard touchdown on an untimed down as South Gate pulled out a miraculous 63-58 victory over Marquez in the City Section Division I final Saturday at Southwest College.

Marquez had taken a 58-57 lead on a one-yard sneak by Angelo Gutierrez and his subsequent two-point conversion pass to Elyjah Staples with six seconds left. After a fair catch, South Gate took over at its 46 and when Anthony Ford intercepted a pass the Gladiators began celebrating, thinking they had won. However, a pass interference penalty advanced the ball to the Marquez 39 and gave the Rams one last gasp with zeros on the clock.

Quarterback Michael Gonzalez rolled to his right to buy time and launched a pass into a maze of players in the end zone. The jump ball was tipped by two defenders into the waiting arms of Fonseca, who calmly grabbed it out of midair — shocking even his own teammates.

“I said to myself I’m not going to go up for the ball, I’m not that tall. … I’m gonna wait for it to come down and that’s what happened,” said Fonseca, who had 10 catches for 152 and two touchdowns and also scored on a six-yard run.

“I seen it coming, I saw them hit it down but it went right into my hands and I caught it. This is one of the most special moments of my life!”

Gonzalez completed 26 of 34 passes for 450 yards and six touchdowns. Ephaunie Lewis had 10 receptions for 193 yards and three scores — the last a three-yard lob from Gonzalez with 52 seconds left, immediately followed by Fonseca’s two-point run to put South Gate up 57-50.

Marquez tailback Gilberto Cisneros drags Rams defender Jordan Olivares to the goal line in the second quarter Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Nicholas Quintanilla returned the second-half kickoff 85 yards for a score that pulled the second-seeded Rams (11-3) even and his 39-yard touchdown catch gave South Gate its first lead, 35-28, late in the third quarter. He finished with five catches for 90 yards and rushed five times for 54 yards.

The teams combined for six touchdowns in a wild fourth quarter.

Angelo Gutierrez-Molina threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns, Marcus Juan ran for 113 yards and one touchdown in 15 carries and caught four passes for 50 yards. He raced 68 yards on a hook and lateral to give the fifth-seeded Gladiators (11-3) a 50-49 lead with 1:57 left.

Gilberto Cisneros added 84 yards and three touchdowns in 22 carries and Staples had four catches for 129 yards and one touchdown.

“Never give up!” coach Francisco Saldana shouted before raising the trophy

South Gate lost to Chatsworth 38-36 on a field goal with no time left in the Division II final last year — one of the most bizarre endings in City playoff history.

“On the last play my coach told me to run a corner route to the pylon,” Fonseca said. “Last year we were up late and it bit us. This time we came through and it feels great.”

South Gate captured its third City title and first since winning the 3A Division in 1988 under Gary Cordray.

According to an old Latin proverb that might be democracy’s motto, vox populi, vox dei (“The voice of the people is the voice of God”). But when God is speaking, do we drum our fingers on the table and interrupt with “Cut to the chase, we don’t have all day”?

No, we don’t, and we should not hurry along the electoral process that “hears” the sacred voice of the American people either. If recounts in New Mexico or Wisconsin or Oregon are in order, and if they swing the election to George W. Bush, so be it, but take the time to get the counts right. If recounts in Florida or Missouri do the same for Al Gore, then so be it again, but again take the time to get the counts right. Doing so is not a breakdown of the system, it is the system.

When the American republic was founded, all voting was by hand, and so was all counting of votes. The founding fathers allowed enough time between the election and the inauguration of a new president for that laborious counting to take place and for any irregularities along the way to be resolved. Sure, there are many more votes to be counted now, but there are also many more people to do the counting, whatever method they use. The notion that unless the results are known instantly, the nation is in crisis would surely have struck the founders as alarmist. Television, not the Constitution, is responsible for the impression that something is badly amiss if an event cannot be projected beforehand and instantly replayed afterward.

Some of the major editorial pages of the nation seem to be setting themselves up for their own version of the humiliating double reverse that the networks went through on election night. With votes still being counted and Bush maintaining a narrow lead, several have called on Gore to concede for the good of the country. If Gore pulls into the lead, will they then call on Bush to concede for the good of the country? And then, if the race again becomes too close to call, will they decide that for the good of the country neither should yet concede to the other?

That final position should, in fact, be the initial position. Both the principals and those reporting on them need to calm down, take a deep breath and inhabit the space that the American polity has so wisely provided for this uniquely important decision.

On a cool Saturday morning at Fresno’s Woodward Park, Oliver Hunter of Dana Hills became his school’s fifth consecutive state cross-country champion by winning the Division 3 championship with a time of 14 minutes 55.3 seconds.

“He trusted the process. He was all smiles,” coach Craig Dunn said.

Evan Noonan won three titles and Jai Dawson won the other. Hunter was a little concerned early in the season about being pushed and being fit, but Dunn told him again and again, “Trust the process,” and he was ready for his best effort after winning last week’s Southern Section Division 3 championship.

In Division 1 boys, Redondo Union won the team title and Conor Lott of Clovis North held off Maximo Zavaleta of King to win the individual title. Lott ran 14:43.2 and Zavaleta finished in 14:49.7. In Division 1 girls, Jaelyn Williams of San Diego Eastlake won in 16:28.1.

Summer Wilson of Irvine won the Division 2 girls’ title with a course-record time of 16:20. Aelo Curtis of Ventura was second in 16:35.6. Sacramento Jesuit won its 11th boys’ title.

El Toro won the Division 3 girls’ title. Carol Dye of Santa Margarita placed third in 17:22.2.

JSerra won the Division 4 boys’ and girls’ titles. Vin Krueger of Oaks Christian was third in 15:10.5 in the boys’ race.

In Division 5 boys, Olly O’Connor of Viewpoint won the title in 14:52.7.

It’s Raiders week.

Resist the urge to yawn.

What used to be an intense AFC West rivalry is now a bit muted with the Chargers limping into the fourth quarter of the season and the Raiders fumbling around in the dark, having lost nine of their last 10 games.

The Chargers, who began the season with three consecutive divisional victories, have a chance to pull off their first sweep of the season. The Raiders are looking to bounce back from a humiliating loss at home by two touchdowns to Cleveland.

Meanwhile, the Chargers are coming off their worst loss of the season — by 29 points to Jacksonville on the road.

Despite the Raiders’ record, the home team can’t get too comfortable.

“Raiders, it’s a rivalry,” Coach Jim Harbaugh said. “And we know they’re going to bring it.”

How the Raiders can win: Get in an offensive rhythm with interim play-caller Greg Olson, cleaning up the communication issues that were a problem in Chip Kelly’s system. Establish a ground game with Ashton Jeanty and mix in more Brock Bowers at tight end. Protect Geno Smith, who has been sacked 18 times in the past three games, including 10 times by Cleveland last week. Get after Justin Herbert, especially off the edges with Maxx Crosby, Malcolm Koonce and Tyree Wilson.

How the Chargers can win: As usual, protect Herbert behind a cobbled-together and constantly-changing offensive line and get some traction with the ground game. The Raiders can bring pressure off the edge, but their linebackers struggle in coverage and they are vulnerable at corner opposite Eric Stokes. The Chargers have the receivers to get open, particularly Ladd McConkey and Oronde Gadsden II. The Raiders have some of the same offensive line problems as the Chargers. Smith could be in trouble.

Friday was just another day at the office for Darnell Miller.

Santee’s senior running back arrived on time, rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns, and clocked out early as the Falcons soared past Hawkins 35-6 to win the City Section Division III championship at Birmingham High.

Watching from the sideline, as he does almost every game, was Darnell’s 10-year-old brother, Frederick, a fifth-grader at Twenty-Eighth Street Elementary who Darnell picks up from school and brings to practice every day.

“What I love most about this sport is all the friends I’ve made. … I’m a shy person, but it’s made me more vocal, taught me discipline and to take care of my responsibilities,” said Miller, who likes football best despite also playing guard on the basketball team in the winter and running for the track team in the spring. “I just do what I do. This is my last year, so I want to finish strong.”

Darnell Miller and his 10-year-old brother, Frederick, pose with the City championship trophy and plaque after Santee’s victory in Division III.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Miller began the day averaging 15.1 yards per carry, having rushed for 3,103 yards and 37 touchdowns, and wasted no time adding to those totals against the second-seeded Hawks (10-3). He ended Santee’s first drive with an 11-yard touchdown run, added a five-yarder in the second quarter and a nine-yarder in the third quarter to make it 35-0. Quarterback Daynian Alvarado scored the Falcons’ other two touchdowns on runs of one and 13 yards.

“Darnell is a very hard working, humble young man and everything you want a captain to be,” said Santee coach John Petty, who guided the Falcons to their only other City title in 2018. “He’s the first person in the locker room and the last to leave.”

The win wrapped up a dominant run for the No. 1-seeded Falcons (10-4), who defeated their four playoff opponents by an average margin of 29 points.

The Hawks averted the shutout midway through the fourth quarter when Justin Cortez capped a 10-play, 55-yard drive with a five-yard scoring run.

His job done, Miller got to sit out the entire fourth quarter after upping his touchdown count to 43 touchdowns this season (40 rushing, one receiving and two on kickoff returns). Despite impressive stats, Miller has received only one scholarship offer — from Pikeville, an NAIA program in Kentucky.

“My goal is to keep playing, wherever that is,” Miller said.

Ever since Donald Trump declared that he could end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours”, much of the world has been waiting to see whether he could force Moscow and Kyiv into a settlement. Millions of views and scrolls, miles of news feeds and mountains of forecasts have been burned on that question.

Trump fed this expectation by insisting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was running out of options and would eventually have to accept his deal. In reality, the opposite is true. It is Trump who has no leverage. He can threaten Nicolas Maduro with potential military action in or around Venezuela, but he has no influence over Vladimir Putin. Any sanctions harsh enough to damage Russia would also hit the wider Western economy, and there is not a single leader in the West willing to saw off the branch they are sitting on.

Armed intervention is even more implausible. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, NATO decided to support Ukraine with weapons and training while avoiding steps that could trigger a direct NATO–Russia war. That position has not changed.

As a result, Ukraine has been left in a position where, with or without sufficient support from its allies, it is in effect fighting Russia alone. All talk of peace or a ceasefire has proved to be a bluff, a way for Vladimir Putin to buy time and regroup. Putin’s strategy relies on outlasting not only Ukraine’s army but also the patience and political unity of its allies. The United States has now circulated a revised version of its peace framework, softening some of the most contentious points after consultations with Kyiv and several European governments. Yet the Kremlin continues to demand major territorial concessions and the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces. Without this, Russia says it will not halt its advance. Ukraine, for its part, maintains that it will not surrender territory.

Once it became clear that the diplomatic track offered no breakthrough, the United States all but halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Officials blamed the federal government shutdown, although the real cause was unlikely to be a shortage of movers at the Pentagon. Either way, American military assistance has dwindled to a trickle, consisting mostly of supplies approved under the Biden administration. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary-designate Austin Dahmer said: “I’m not aware of any pause in [US military] aid to Ukraine.” It sounded less like a serious assessment and more like an admission of ignorance. Every Ukrainian soldier can feel the consequences of the sharp reduction in American weapons. Every resident of Kyiv and other cities can feel the shortage of air defence systems.

Europe has not filled the gap. The European Union’s defence industry and joint-procurement schemes have produced many promises but little real money. A few billion euros have been formally committed and far less has been delivered. Member states prefer to rearm themselves first and Ukraine second, although their own programmes are moving slowly. The EU remains divided between governments willing to take greater risks to support Kyiv and others that fear provoking Russia or weakening their own budgets. Brussels is now pushing a plan to use frozen Russian assets to back a loan of up to 140 billion euros ($162bn) for Ukraine, which could support Kyiv’s budget and defence spending over the next two years. Several key member states that host most of those reserves remain cautious, and without unanimity, the plan may stall.

This leaves Ukraine expanding its own production and fighting with whatever arrives and whatever is not siphoned off by corrupt figures such as Tymur Mindich, who is under investigation in a major procurement case. For now, Ukraine can slow the enemy at enormous cost, but this is nowhere near enough to win.

The army is under-supplied. The government has failed to sustain motivation or mobilise the country; in fact, it has achieved the opposite. Men are fighting their fourth year of war, while women cannot wait indefinitely. Divorces are rising, exhaustion is deepening, and morale is collapsing. Prosecutors have opened more than 255,000 cases for unauthorised absence and more than 56,000 for desertion since 2022. In the first 10 months of 2025 alone, they registered around 162,500 AWOL cases and 21,600 desertion cases. Other reports suggest that more than 21,000 troops left the army in October, which is the highest monthly figure so far. Social injustice is widening.

Demographically, the picture is equally bleak. Ukraine’s population has fallen from more than 50 million at independence to about 31 million in territory controlled by Kyiv as of early 2025. Births remain below deaths and fertility rates have dropped to about one child per woman.

Against this backdrop, Ukraine is left with three strategic options.

The first option is to accept Putin’s terms. This would mean capitulating, losing political face and giving up territory, but it would preserve a Ukrainian state. It would also lock the country into long-term vulnerability.

The second option is a radical overhaul of Ukraine’s political and military leadership. This would involve rebuilding mobilisation, restructuring the command system and re-engineering the war effort from the ground up. Ukraine cannot fight a long war with institutions that were designed for peacetime politics and rotational deployments.

The third option is to change nothing and maintain the status quo. Ukraine would continue launching precision strikes on Russian oil infrastructure in the hope of grinding down the Kremlin’s economy and waiting for Putin to die. This is an illusion. If such strikes could not break a smaller Ukraine, they will not break a country many times larger in economic, territorial and demographic terms. Damage will be inflicted, but nowhere near enough to force Russia to stop.

Judging by recent statements from Zelenskyy and several of his European partners, Ukraine has effectively committed itself to the third option. The question is how long this approach can be sustained. Even setting aside morale and exhaustion after four years of war, the financial outlook is bleak. Ukraine faces a vast budget deficit and public debt that is likely to exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product. Europe has failed to assemble the necessary funds, Belgium has not released frozen Russian assets and economic growth across much of the continent remains weak. Any significant increase in support would require political courage at a time when voters remain sensitive to the recent inflation surge. The EU is also unable to tie the United States to long-term commitments in the current political climate in Washington.

All this leads to an unavoidable conclusion. If Ukraine intends to survive as a state, it will eventually have to take the second path and undertake a radical restructuring of its political and military leadership. Once that moment arrives, Moscow’s terms will be harsher than they are now. The Russian ultimatum is likely to expand from claims on four regions to demands for eight, along with strict control mechanisms, demilitarisation and further concessions.

Radical change is needed immediately, before Ukraine’s strategic options narrow further and before its ability to resist collapses with them.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Rams defensive end Kobie Turner, a 294-pound man strong enough to carry a piano on his back, can also tap out a tune.

The country saw that Sunday night when, on two occasions, NBC aired video footage of Turner expertly playing a complex version of the “Sunday Night Football” theme song. He learned it by ear, then set up his phone to capture the clip.

The song was written by legendary composer John Williams and originally was called “Wide Receiver,” although NBC never adopted that name.

“He listened to it a couple of times and was able to play it and add his own flair,” NBC coordinating producer Rob Hyland said of Turner, who majored in music theory and composition at University of Richmond.

“I was completely blown away. Kobie has so much talent on the football field and just as much with musical instruments. His nickname, `The Conductor,’ is very fitting.”

Turner had two sacks in the 34-7 trouncing of Tampa Bay. He was instrumental in the Rams assembling their best defensive performance of the year, giving up 70 yards passing and 193 total.

The idea to show Turner’s musical talents was hatched earlier this year, and for “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon Prime. There’s a lot of crossover between those two production crews.

Reid Esocoff, whose father, Drew, directs the Sunday night show, pitched the idea to Prime to have Turner play that song for the Oct. 2 game against San Francisco. The segment got the green light, and Amazon sent the Rams star the sheet music.

“It was like five minutes long,” Turner recalled. “I was like, OK, I’m going to have to rearrange this. There’s like trumpets and strings, and I’m like, ‘I’m only doing piano.’”

Turner did his part, but the video wound up on the cutting-room floor.

Enter NBC, which made the same ask and ensured the Rams it would air the video. This time, Turner didn’t want the sheet music, just a recording of the familiar theme song.

“I picked it up by ear and I rearranged it too,” he said, “Because it was another three-minute-long song.’ I was like, how can I emulate this with just the keys and me in a solo take? It was a lot of fun.”

He nailed it, and the video ran twice, when NBC was going to a commercial and after Turner made a big play.

“Anytime I can learn something new, and anytime I can flex the music muscle it’s a lot of fun,” he said.

After playing the song — on his first take, mind you — Turner paused, then popped up and did a strongman flex in triumph.

Tackled it.

William Shakespeare wouldn’t be wowed by this domestic drama about his home life back in Stratford-upon-Avon. Where’s the action? The wit? The wordplay?

The great playwright’s skill is hard to match. Instead, “Hamnet,” directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), uses our curiosity about the Bard to spin a soggy story about love and grief with enough tears to flood the river Thames. Co-written by Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, this tonally faithful adaptation of O’Farrell’s florid 2020 novel of the same name stars Paul Mescal as Will — the name he goes by here — and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Agnes, pronounced Ahn-yes, although the real person was more commonly called Anne Hathaway. The 16th century’s fondness for treating Agnes/Anne and Hamnet/Hamlet as interchangeable versions of the same name is part of the plot and must be endured.

The tale is set during the years that Will launched his career in London, missed being at the deathbed of one of his children and funneled his guilt and sorrow into theater’s most prestigious ghost story. Mostly, however, we’re stuck at home with Agnes, who spends half the film weeping.

“There are many different ways to cry,” wrote O’Farrell, whose book goes on to list several variations. (The novel is overripe with descriptors, rarely using one word when a paragraph will do.) Buckley’s wet and wild performance shows us each of them — “the sudden outpouring of tears, the deep racking sobs, the soundless and endless leaking of water from the eyes’’ — plus a few others I’ll call the disgorged caterwaul, the furious scrunch and the chuckle swallowed into a choke. “Hamnet” is my least favorite of Buckley’s showcase roles (I loved “The Lost Daughter”), but the dampness of it has pundits wagering she’ll finally get her Academy Award.

Christopher Marlowe truthers aside, William Shakespeare was an actual person who, historical records concur, married a pregnant woman eight years his senior and had three kids: Susanna, the eldest, and twins Judith and Hamnet. (They’re played, respectively, by Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Olivia Lynes and Jacobi Jupe.) Nearly everything else ever written about the family is conjecture spun from the scraps of information that exist, such as Shakespeare’s will leaving nothing to his wife other than “his second-best bed.”

Previous fictions have deemed Agnes a cradle robber or a shrew or the Bard’s secret co-writer. Zhao’s script goes one further: This Agnes is a witch. Not merely in the slanderous meaning, as in a difficult woman (although she’s also that). Buckley’s Agnes is actually magic. She can predict someone’s destiny by squeezing their hand, the party trick Christopher Walken did in “The Dead Zone.” Sometimes she’s wrong, sometimes she fights fate with everything she’s got, yet her faith in her foresight is rarely shaken. Her husband, who would later write witches and sorcerers and soothsayers into “Macbeth,” “The Tempest” and “Julius Caesar,” is taxed by her psychic gifts. He grumbles that it’s hard to open up to someone who can already “divine your secrets at a glance.”

Her ability to see through time and space has somehow made Agnes transparent too. Joy, confusion, fascination and despair take over her entire face instantaneously, turning Buckley’s performance into an acting exercise of being raw and present. (The crooked smile that signifies her unvarnished realness gets wearying.) The plotting doesn’t have any subterranean levels either, trusting solely in its primal display of sweat, hormones and heartbreak. This period piece almost seems to believe Agnes is inventing each emotion.

Will, a tutor, is trapped inside teaching Latin the first time he spots his future bride romping around in the grass with a hawk on her arm. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal frames the scene in a pane of window glass so that Agnes’ reflection ripples across Will’s yearning face, contrasting the earthy enchantress with the indoor bookworm. These oddballs have little in common besides their defiance of village norms and their families’ mutual disapproval. “I’d rather you went to sea than marry this wench,” Will’s mother, Mary (Emily Watson), hisses. (Her gradual thaw is genuinely affecting.)

Meanwhile, Agnes’ most supportive sibling, a farmer named Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn), can’t fathom what Will has to offer. “Why marry a pasty-faced scholar?” he asks. “What use is he?”

Their flirtation — especially Mescal’s dumb, happy, horny grin — makes Shakespeare feel freshly relatable. Perhaps his Ye Olde Tinder profile read: “Aspiring playwright seeks older woman, pagan preferred.” At times in “Hamnet,” 1582, the year of their marriage, could pass for a millennium earlier, a rustic era where neither has anything more pressing to do than canoodle under the trees. Later on, their partnership feels more contemporary, a frustrated writer hitting the bottle while his missus supports but doesn’t understand his work.

That the greatest dramatist of the last 500 years is married to someone wholly incurious about his art is, in itself, a tragedy. There’s a scene in which you wonder not only if has Agnes never seen one of his plays, but if she even knows what a play is. Our credulity would snap if Mescal’s Shakespeare was the slick talker that his early biographer John Aubrey described as “very good company, of a very redie and pleasant smoothe Witt.” But this stammering, rather dull chap doesn’t come across as a genius. He must save it all for his quill.

This isn’t Mescal’s fault. The book’s version of him is pretty much the same, perhaps because O’Farrell doesn’t reveal that this fictional grieving character is Shakespeare until the last page. (Although the title is a gimmicky clue.) At least Zhao adds scenes that show him workshopping his material. The kids prance around the yard quoting “Macbeth” a decade before he’ll stage it and Mescal gets to recite a “Hamlet” soliloquy as a little treat. I enjoyed the unremarked-upon tension of Will returning home from London with a hip haircut and an earring.

The texture of the film is impressive. Żal’s camera swivels around their home, soaking it in like a documentary. Whenever the film goes outside, he and Zhao make you feel the mystical power of the dirt and leaves. The forest rumbles with so much energy that it sounds like living next to a freeway. To keep things feeling authentic, co-editors Affonso Gonçalves and Zhao keep in flukes that other filmmakers might consider flubs, like an insect dive-bombing one of the actor’s eyelashes. The spell of “Hamnet’s” naturalism rarely breaks, save for a couple nice flourishes, like a shadow puppet depiction of the plague and a shot of the underworld as seen through a black lace curtain, a literalization of going beyond the veil.

Meanwhile, the score by the talented Max Richter is made of soft, pleasant little piano plinks and one major if beautiful mistake: a climactic needle-drop of his 2004 masterpiece “On the Nature of Daylight.” That soul-stirring number is one of the loveliest compositions of the modern era, so good at making an audience sigh that it’s been used two dozen times already, including in “Arrival,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Shutter Island” and “The Last of Us.” As soon those violins kick up here, you’re shoved out of the 16th century and feel less moved than shamelessly manipulated.

“Hamnet’s” sweetest note is 12-year-old Jacobi Jupe playing the actual Hamnet. The script hangs on our immediate devotion to the boy and he stands up to the challenge. Unlike most child actors — and unlike his on-screen parents — he never overplays his big scenes. His stoicism is wrenching. Also terrific is his real-life older brother, Noah Jupe, as the play-within-a-film’s onstage Hamlet. In a rehearsal, this young actor seems dreadful. Zhao has him whiff it so that Mescal can say the lines again, louder. But on the play’s opening night, he’s a sensation.

Shakespeare didn’t invent “Hamlet” from whole cloth. He adapted it from a Norse yarn that had been around for centuries, and Lord knows if he was more inspired by his own child or by another successful version of “Hamlet” that played London a decade before. In our century, it’s been reworked for the screen more than 50 times, and mouthed by everyone from Ethan Hawke and Danny Devito to Shelley Long.

Yet I would have been happy watching the older Jupe do the whole thing again for this lively Globe Theatre crowd, the first to discover how Shakespeare’s version will end. As this Hamlet collapses, the audience reaches their arms toward the fallen prince. The actor draws strength from the groundlings and they, in turn, find solace in his pain. That stunning image alone single-handedly captures everything this movie has struggled to say (or sob) about the catharsis of art.

For as long as most of us can remember, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions have played games on Thanksgiving Day. But why?

Let’s start with the Lions. They have played every Thanksgiving since 1934, with the exception of 1939-44, despite the fact they haven’t been a good team most of those years. The Lions played their first season in Detroit in 1934 (before that, they were the Portsmouth Spartans). They struggled their first year in Detroit, as most sports fans there loved baseball’s Detroit Tigers and didn’t come out in droves to watch the Lions. So Lions owner George A. Richards had an idea: Why not play on Thanksgiving?

Richards also owned radio station WJR, which was one of the biggest stations in the country at that time. Richards had a lot of clout in the broadcasting world, and convinced NBC to air the game nationwide. The NFL champion Chicago Bears came to town, and the Lions sold out the 26,000-seat University of Detroit field for the first time. Richards kept the tradition going the next two years, and the NFL kept scheduling them on Thanksgiving when they resumed playing on that date after World War II ended. Richards sold the team in 1940 and died in 1951, but the tradition he started continues today when the Lions play the Green Bay Packers.

The Cowboys first played on Thanksgiving in 1966. They came into the league in 1960 and, as hard as it is to believe now, struggled to draw fans because they were pretty bad those first few years. General manager Tex Schramm basically begged the NFL to schedule them for a Thanksgiving game in 1966, thinking it might get them a popularity boost in Dallas and also nationwide since the game would be televised.

It worked. A Dallas-record 80,259 tickets were sold as the Cowboys defeated the Cleveland Browns 26-14. Some Cowboys fans point to that game as the beginning of Dallas becoming “America’s team.” They have missed playing on Thanksgiving only in 1975 and 1977, when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle opted for the St. Louis Cardinals instead.

The games with the Cardinals proved to be losers in the ratings, so Rozelle asked the Cowboys if they would play again in 1978.

“It was a dud in St. Louis,” Schramm told the Chicago Tribune in 1998. “Pete asked if we’d take it back. I said only if we get it permanently. It’s something you have to build as a tradition. He said, ‘It’s yours forever.’ ”

Dallas takes on the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday.

Silver Lake earned the “hipster” handle long before Spaceland opened its doors. But when the club threw its first show in March 1995 at the venue formerly known as Dreams of L.A., it marked a notable energy shift that made everyone take notice, establishing the neighborhood as a trendsetter and hub for creative talent. The live music space was the right idea, in the right place, at the right time.

Atmospheric dive bars, funky/punky mom-and-pop shops and reasonable rents began attracting artists, musicians and bohemian slackers and scenesters as residents in the early ’90s. They joined its vibrant queer community and multigenerational familial (mostly Latino) populace, which combined to make it one of the coolest places to live in L.A. It still is, albeit pricier and more pretentious, if you ask those who grew up there.

But 30 years ago things were different — the area was hip, but it also felt effortlessly eccentric. The annual Sunset Junction Street Fair, which closed off Sunset Boulevard between Fountain and Edgecliffe Drive beginning in the ’80s, started booking more legacy bands and hot new groups, broadening the cultural consciousness of the city and bringing Angelenos from all over town to the area until it ceased in 2010.

Silver Lake’s music mecca status was ultimately cemented when promoter Mitchell Frank decided to turn his weekly live music night at Dreams called Pan into a bona fide rock venue, taking what was bubbling in the streets, at house parties in the hills and at nearby rehearsal spaces and providing a singular home for music makers to nurture and grow their followings.

Opening night marked a benefit for quirky noise rockers Lutefisk, who lived in the area and, like many there, rehearsed at Hully Gully on Fletcher Drive. After their equipment was stolen, they put together a bill of buzzy local artists to raise funds, including headliner Beck, who got his start at the artsy coffeehouse called the Onyx next to the Vista Theatre, and later on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz Village.

Rob Zabreckyn of Possom Dixon

(Arlen Hem)

Coupled with the darkly melodic alt-rock of Possum Dixon as openers, the show was a hot ticket. As last-minute luck would have it, the night became even more monumental with an early show addition — the debut of Dave Grohl’s new project called the Foo Fighters.

“It was just crazy. That night it was raining and both shows sold out,” recalls Lutefisk drummer Brandon Jay. “It was that lovely moment in time when KBLT started broadcasting and there was a growing scene in Silver Lake when everyone was like, ‘Oh, Silver Lake is the new Seattle’ — only it was more diverse.”

Jay, who went on to play with other bands like the 88 and Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang, hopes to remind local music fans about the seminal scene at the Regent this Saturday, where Lutefisk reunites alongside Dixon’s Rob Zabrecky (playing with various luminaries from the club) and Spaceland favorites Touchcandy, the Centimeters, Jon Wahl (Claw Hammer), Sissy Bar, W.A.C.O. and more.

“This show is as close as you’re gonna get to a real ’90s Spaceland night,” assures Frank. “Touchcandy, Lutefisk, Centimeters, Rob from Possum Dixon and Sissy Bar … this is the exact kind of beautiful symphonic chaos that defined that ’90s era. Nights like this are what propelled a fractured Eastside music scene into becoming a full-fledged scene.”

Indeed, gathering disparate genres, styles and niches in one place was what made this scene unique. “There were so many wonderful, eclectic bands,” Jay adds. “A bunch got signed, but you know, fame is a fickle thing, and you never know what might get played on the radio.”

Plenty who played at the club did. In addition to Beck and the Foos, local acts who broke after playing there include Silversun Pickups (named after a nearby liquor store), Rilo Kiley and the Airborne Toxic Event, while touring indie artists also earned their stripes in front of the mylar curtain-backdropped stage, namely the White Stripes, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Jet, Ween, Cold War Kids, Death Cab for Cutie, Amy Winehouse … and the list goes on and on.

“There was a point in time where bands were coming through town on tour and playing L.A. for the first time and their agents all wanted them to play Spaceland’s Monday residency,” remembers former head booker Jennifer Tefft of the no-cover event, which became legendary by the early 2000s. “They played for free, but it allowed them to be seen. Everyone wanted to play there and not just on a local level, but on an international level. NME in the U.K. were giving the club so much press, so all these bands wanted to come to L.A. for it … Bloc Party, the Killers and My Morning Jacket all made their debuts at the club.”

Tefft went on to book the Bootleg Theater, but later returned to work with the building’s owner, Jeff Wolfram, to breathe new life into the Silver Lake space under the name the Satellite. It closed due to pandemic struggles in March 2020 and remains shuttered. Meanwhile, Frank, along with booker Liz Garo, left the venue — which was technically still called Dreams, to focus on his new space, the Echo and its later addition, the Echoplex.

He sold the Echo Park complex, along with the Regent, to Live Nation in 2019, but still remains involved in booking and other club business dealings. All three figures deserve credit for the cosmic alchemy and community spirit that made Spaceland and the world it created so game-changing. They really cared about the people who played there and would often champion their favorites and help build their followings through promotion and advertising, namely in the free print edition of LA Weekly.

“We all had the same sort of passion and curiosity about music and supporting locals,” shares Garo, who booked at Spaceland when Tefft left, and really made her name at the Echo. “I think that’s why it kept that integrity.”

There is no shortage of fond, slightly fuzzy memories at Spaceland. There were also many games of pool in their infamous upper-level smoking room (which puffed on even after the ’98 bar smoking ban due to a loophole).

Free Monday promotions were nothing new — Club Lingerie in Hollywood had been doing them for years — but Spaceland’s were magical for both the bands and the fans because of the monthlong residency model. Besides being budget-friendly and clearly well-curated, boasting up-and-comers and offering big-name surprises, it was a place to meet like-minded alternative types who fancied the same fashions, art and pop culture references.

Most of the local musicians who played there seemed to know each other simply from hanging out so much and those who proved themselves on stage were rewarded with new followings that got bigger each week.

The Centimeters perform at Spaceland

(Wild Don Lewis)

“Jen had a really good formula — you would do your residency, then you would not do another show for six weeks or so, and then you’d come back and do a ticketed show,” Garo explains. “Ideally that worked and kind of helped establish that bands could sell tickets. You know, when bands start off, they’re playing to their friends in the audience. When they get to that point where they don’t know anybody in the audience, that’s kind of a big deal.”

Beyond exposure and local notoriety, for Zabrecky, Jay and countless musicians who had residencies — many of whom will be seeing each other for the first time in years at the Regent show — Spaceland was formative not only for their music but also for their life trajectories.

“Playing Spaceland with Possum Dixon was always unpredictable,” recalls Zabrecky, who went on to become a revered magician and performer. “We never knew which direction a show might go. Every band was different, yet everyone was accepted and celebrated for what they were. Groups like Glue, Spindle, W.A.C.O. and the Abe Lincoln Story couldn’t have been more different from each other, and that made every lineup exciting. And, of course, we were all just making it up as we went along, buoyed by the support of our peers.”

The transitional period between Spaceland and the Satellite is marked by the band who helped put it on the map and unintentionally kicked off the fervor to begin with. The Foo Fighters chose the locale for their series of surprise pop-up shows debuting new material in 2011, right before the venue was renamed.

The next year, Forbes dubbed Silver Lake “America’s Hippest Hipster Neighborhood,” which meant it was no longer … that. American Apparel stores had infiltrated, corporate coffee was everywhere and artists were getting priced out, heading East into Echo Park, Mt. Washington, Highland Park and downtown too, with many of the bars and clubs in those regions seeking to capture the old Spaceland vibes. They still do.

Brian Wilson onstage with the Wondermints at Spaceland

(Courtesy of Brandon Jay)

In this way, Spaceland’s legacy has lasted beyond Gen X nostalgia for the good old days. Inspired by the fervent framework for music discovery and social connection of the past, new bands now showcase their stuff at the Echo, Regent, Zebulon, Redwood Bar and many more, eschewing Hollywood and the Sunset Strip for more laid-back environments.

Frank continues to lend his expertise to Live Nation; Garo is planning events and working with venues, from acoustic sets at her book shop Stories in Echo Park to her just-announced gig booking for Grand Performances downtown; and Jay, who lost his home in the California wildfires, turned the tragedy into a beautiful music exchange program called Altadena Musicians. He’s also involved in a new all-ages music venue called the Backyard Party in Pasadena, noting that a new generation of art-minded music rebels continues to thrive just like they did at Spaceland three decades ago.

Jay is also helping with the Regent show planning, and put in the call to Touchcandy’s David Willis, who’ll be flying into town from the U.K. just for the show. Word has also been put out to Beck and Grohl (though no commitments have been made), and the pirate radio station KBLT, whose documentary “40 Watts from Nowhere” counts Jay and Jack Black as producers, will offer sets from its deejays in between the live sounds.

The lineup listed on the event flier is meant to evoke the original benefit promo from ’95, and it represents the magnificent music mix all on its own, flashing back to an exciting era that L.A. music lovers who experienced it will never forget, a time when the scene was “young and free,” as Zabrecky remembers, and those lucky enough to be on the marquee played what he dubs “the best club at the best moment on Earth.”

“These bands were messy, loud, indie, real and somehow still innovative,” Frank adds of the 30th anniversary show, which is being touted as a Vol. 1, suggesting more to come. “Shows like this are the reason any of it mattered.”

FREDDY Brazier flashed a huge smile as he was spotted for the first time since splitting from his pregnant girlfriend.

The 21-year-old father-to-be dumped his girlfriend Holly Swinburn, who is carrying his first child, after the pair’s tumultuous on-and-off relationship ended in a row involving his dog.

Freddy appeared to put his fresh heartbreak behind him as he enjoyed a night out at Claridges Christmas party on Tuesday.

The model was seen wearing a grey shirt and trousers co-ord, and with what appeared to be a mink scarf around his neck.

He looked in good spirits as he was snapped heading into the venue.

Freddy is reported to have dumped Holly before she “tried to take his dog from him” in a row, the Daily Mail has revealed.

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Sources close to Holly told the Daily Mail that Freddy is struggling with the idea of co-parenting with Holly.

A source told the outlet: “The pair have been arguing a lot recently.

“Having a baby so young is a lot to deal with. Both are quite flighty characters.”

They added how Freddy had feared he was not the father, but has since done a paternity test which confirmed that he is.

The couple revealed they were expecting a child together just last month.

The pair looked loved-up as they posed together at The Pride of Britain Awards at London’s Grosvenor Hotel when she debuted her bump on the red carpet.

The baby is due in the New Year.

The news of Freddy’s heartache comes just mere hours after his father Jeff Brazier was revealed to have split from wife Kate Dwyer after seven years.

Jeff, 46, whose Big Brother ex Jade Goody died of cancer in 2009, ditched his ring, as did PR guru Kate, 35.

Sources said they grew apart after “a year of hell” involving issues with Freddy.

At the weekend Jeff hinted his marriage was over in online posts.

He shared a snap of the view from his new home and wrote: “I’ve escaped back to the countryside.”

He spoke of “living in calm” and “a transitional time in all our lives”.

Yesterday he was not wearing his wedding ring as he reported for ITV’s Good Morning Britain from Reykjavik in Iceland.

A source said PR guru Kate moved out of the marital home three weeks ago and has returned to her apartment in Hackney.

She spent the weekend in Las Vegas for the US Grand Prix.

A source said of Jeff and Kate: “It’s been an incredibly stressful year for all of them.

“It’s been one thing after another.

“The pressure they’re under has exposed the weaknesses in their marriage and it’s become too much.

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“Kate has told friends she’s had enough.

“She left three weeks ago and is now living in an apartment in London.”

At the Beijing premiere of “Zootopia 2” last week, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush encountered a wall filled with letters from people throughout China, all writing about what the original 2016 animated movie meant to them.

They highlighted the optimism of rabbit cop Judy Hopps and how they wanted to emulate her sunny outlook. They cited the unlikely friendship between Judy and her partner in crime, a fox named Nick Wilde, as hope that they could find common ground with different family members. It was a display Bush didn’t see at any other premiere.

“It’s more than just a story,” said Bush, who wrote and directed “Zootopia 2,” directing alongside Byron Howard. “A lot of the time, these characters have helped people through difficult moments of their life. They have a lot of love for these characters.”

To this day, the original “Zootopia” ranks as China’s highest-grossing Hollywood animated film, with a total box office haul there of $236 million. Marketing ahead of the new film has included promotions with 10 brands, as well as displays throughout the country, including in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Beijing.

But over the years, the China market for U.S.-made films has changed dramatically, leading to questions about whether “Zootopia,” which heads to theaters Wednesday, and its loyal following can break through the more difficult landscape that American movies face there today.

Once seen as a major — and lucrative — destination for big Hollywood blockbusters, the country now has a more robust local film industry that’s pumping out strong competitors. The fraying geopolitical relationship between the U.S. and China also hasn’t helped, nor has the increasing trend of younger audiences watching short-form content on their phones.

“It’s important to the industry that both ‘Zootopia’ and ‘Avatar’ work,” said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios, referring to the upcoming James Cameron-directed “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” “The overall industry needs some success at year-end, and I think this would be a tremendous sign of confidence in the marketplace.”

China was once seen as a gold mine for certain films — namely, big studio movies — that could get approval from its government for release.

A decade ago, Hollywood movies would regularly haul in more than $100 million at the Chinese box office, with massive blockbusters like 2015’s “Furious 7” and 2014’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction” drawing north of $300 million each. Some films with softer domestic debuts could count on China to supersize their box-office returns, like 2016’s “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” which grossed nearly $160 million in China alone, but just $26.8 million in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2016, the domestic Chinese film business saw a significant slowdown in box-office growth. As a result, revenue from imported films — largely those from the U.S., such as Universal Pictures’ “Warcraft” and Disney-owned Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Civil War” — increased by 10.9%, said Ying Zhu, author of “Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market.”

Those foreign films accounted for 41.7% of the total market share at the time, up from 38.4% in 2015, she wrote in an email. To help boost year-end revenue, Chinese regulators even relaxed the so-called blackout on imported films during December, which was traditionally saved for local movies.

“Zootopia” opened in China to just $22 million at the box office, but momentum grew in subsequent weeks. Though a movie from the U.S. typically got a four-week run in China, Chinese regulators made an exception and added two extra weeks, said Bush, who co-directed and co-wrote the 2016 film.

“‘Zootopia’ was somewhat of a real surprise to us here in China,” he said on a video call from Beijing while on the film’s publicity tour. “We didn’t know that it was going to turn into this phenomenon here.”

Known in China as “Crazy Animal City,” the film’s dynamic between lead characters Nick and Judy and their imperfect but caring relationship appealed to Chinese audiences, as did Judy’s backstory of moving from a small town in the countryside to a major metropolis, Bush said. Animated films have also long been popular in the market.

After the film’s success, Disney built the “Zootopia”-themed land in Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2023 and is the only such land in any Disney park. The studio recently held the movie’s Shanghai premiere at the themed land, as crowds of fans (both there and in Beijing) dressed up as characters from the film, including lesser-known ones like Fru Fru the shrew and Officer Clauhauser, a pop culture-obsessed cheetah.

But since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, China has pulled back from its embrace of Hollywood films, particularly as its political relationship with the U.S. has chilled.

Earlier this year, China planned to reduce the number of Hollywood films it allows into the country, amid tariff tensions with the U.S. At the same time, China’s homegrown film industry has matured, leading to more locally-produced movies at the box office. A notable success was the animated hit “Ne Zha 2,” which raked in almost $2.2 billion worldwide, $1.8 billion of which was in China.

And similar to the U.S., the Chinese film market has also been dented by the growth of short-form content and increasing popularity of watching entertainment on phones and tablets, keeping theatergoers at home.

That’s all meant a less reliable haul for U.S. films. So far this year, the top-grossing American film in China was Universal’s “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” which brought in $79 million — a far cry from the massive returns some U.S. movies once commanded. The last Disney film that was released in China and made more than $100 million was 2024’s “Alien: Romulus.”

But there are still niches that appeal to Chinese audiences, including family movies, big blockbusters laden with special effects and animated franchises. Cripps said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the film’s reception in China, because of the franchise recognition and the themed land in Shanghai.

“Given what’s happened over the last two to three years, it’s hard to get overly excited until you see some actual data,” he said. “But certainly, it feels good going into it.”

Great documentaries are sometimes lucky accidents, the product of being at the right place at the right time and then having the wherewithal to produce something extraordinary out of those unlikely circumstances. When director Julia Loktev traveled to Russia in October 2021, all she wanted was to chronicle a handful of smart, dogged journalists trying to tell the truth who, for their trouble, had been branded foreign agents by Vladimir Putin’s vindictive government. She didn’t know she would be arriving mere months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But thanks to a quirk of coincidence, she ended up having a front-row seat to history.

She made the most of it: Running five-and-a-half hours without a minute wasted, “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” takes us inside TV Rain, one of Russia’s last independent television channels. Divided into five chapters, the documentary begins as Loktev, who was born in the former Soviet Union before leaving when she was 9, returns to her homeland armed with an iPhone to shadow veteran TV Rain reporter and host Anna Nemzer. Over the next four months, a period that ended shortly after the invasion began, Loktev embedded herself not just with Nemzer (who is credited as the film’s co-director) but several other journalists as they fear being arrested for their reporting.

Loktev hasn’t completed a film since 2011’s “The Loneliest Planet,” which starred Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg as soon-to-be-wed lovers backpacking through the Georgian countryside, their seemingly close bond shattered after a harrowing encounter. In that movie and her previous feature, 2006’s “Day Night Day Night,” a spare procedural about a nameless suicide bomber in New York, Loktev explored the mysteries of human behavior under pressure. But with “My Undesirable Friends,” she takes that fascination to a new level, introducing viewers to a group of compelling subjects, many of them women in their 20s, who open up in front of her camera while hanging out at TV Rain, their apartments or in cafes, candidly processing their country’s terrifying descent into authoritarianism in real time.

These intrepid journalists couldn’t foresee the invasion that was coming, nor the brutal local crackdown on free speech in its wake, but Loktev makes those dire certainties clear from the start, solemnly intoning in voice-over, “The world you’re about to see no longer exists.” Since its premiere at last year’s New York Film Festival, “My Undesirable Friends” has been compared to a horror movie and a political thriller but perhaps more accurately, it’s a disaster film — one in which you know the characters so intimately that, when the awful event finally occurs, you care deeply about the outcome. (“My Undesirable Friends” bears the subtitle “Part I” because Loktev has nearly finished a second installment, which catches up with the women after they fled Russia.)

In its avoidance of interviews with experts or historians, the documentary offers a kind of personal scrapbook of Loktev’s subjects, showing what everyday life is like in an oppressive society: strikingly banal with a constant background hum of paranoia. Each woman comes into empathetic focus. Nemzer, who is a little older than her colleagues, balances her demanding job with marriage and motherhood. Meanwhile, her younger co-worker Ksenia Mironova keeps diligently filing stories despite her fiancé, journalist Ivan Safronov, being imprisoned for more than a year. (He would subsequently be sentenced to 22 years.) Investigative reporter Alesya Marokhovskaya has a girlfriend, whose face we never see, and eventually details grim memories of a violent childhood. And then there’s Marokhovskaya’s best friend and partner Irina Dolinina, who combats anxiety while her politically unconscious mother harangues her about not being able to find a man now that she’s been labeled a foreign agent.

The stress and uncertainty of these conversations is palpable but, remarkably, so is a spiky sense of humor. When a co-worker is temporarily locked up, Mironova cracks jokes outside his prison while awaiting his release. The journalists wear their foreign-agent designation as a badge of honor, mocking the comically lengthy disclaimer text they’re forced to run with their broadcasts, a pitch-black coping mechanism to make sense of their tense, surreal moment.

“My Undesirable Friends” captures dark times with some of the funniest people you’d ever hope to have as sisters-in-arms. Defiant, emotional and life-affirming, the film presents us with endearing patriots who love their country but hate its leaders, sucking us into a riveting tale with a powerful undertow.

The audience anticipates the frightening future that awaits these journalists, which makes their relentless advocacy all the more moving. If our 20s are a period of unbridled optimism — a hopefulness that slowly gets beaten out of us as we grow older — “My Undesirable Friends” stands as a touching display of the resilience of youth. There is nothing naive about these women who came of age during Putin’s cruel regime, but they nonetheless believe they can change things. While Loktev rarely inserts herself into this epic, we feel her admiration from behind the camera. The film inspires while it challenges: What were any of us doing at that age that was comparably heroic or meaningful? What are we doing now?

Those questions should stick in the craw of Americans who watch this masterwork. Loktev has made a movie about Russia but its themes spread far beyond that country’s borders. During a year in which the worst-case scenarios of a second Trump presidency have come to fruition, “My Undesirable Friends” contains plenty of echoes with our national news. The canceling of comedy shows, the baseless imprisonment of innocent people, the rampant transphobia: The Putin playbook is now this country’s day-to-day. Some may wish to avoid Loktev’s film because of those despairing parallels. But that’s only more reason to embrace “My Undesirable Friends.” Loktev didn’t set out to be a witness to history, but what she’s emerged with is an indispensable record and a rallying cry.

Quarterbacks Drew Brees and Philip Rivers, along with wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, tight end Jason Witten and running back Frank Gore made it to the semifinal stage in their first year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The five newcomers are among the 26 modern era candidates who advanced to this stage in voting conducted by the full 50-member selection committee for the class of 2026.

The selection committee will next reduce the list to 15 finalists, who will be voted on before the Super Bowl in February.

Four players have already guaranteed themselves spots in the final 15 after making it down to the final seven players in the 2025 class, with Willie Anderson, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri taking those spots.

The other returning finalists are Eli Manning, Fred Taylor, Steve Smith Sr., Reggie Wayne, Jahri Evans, Marshall Yanda, Terrell Suggs and Darren Woodson.

Offensive lineman Lomas Brown and defensive lineman Kevin Williams were the other two candidates who reached the semifinal stage for the first time. The other semifinalists are Hines Ward, Richmond Webb, Steve Wisniewski, Rodney Harrison, Earl Thomas, Vince Wilfork and Robert Mathis.

In addition to the 15 modern era finalists, the selection committee will consider three seniors, one coach and one contributor for the class of 2026. Between four and eight new members will be elected in the second year of this current format.

Only four people got in last year for the smallest class in 20 years.

Brees and Fitzgerald are the top new candidates this year.

Brees is second all time to Tom Brady with 80,358 yards passing and 571 touchdown passes. He spent the first five seasons of his career with the San Diego Chargers before signing as a free agent with the Saints in 2006, where his career took off as he helped lift a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Brees delivered to New Orleans its first Super Bowl title following the 2009 season, when he won MVP of the game after beating Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Brees made the Pro Bowl 13 times in his career, won AP Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 and 2011, was an All-Pro in 2006 and was a second-team All-Pro four times.

Fitzgerald spent his entire career with the Arizona Cardinals after being drafted third overall in 2004. His 1,432 catches and 17,492 yards receiving in 17 seasons rank second all time to Jerry Rice.

Fitzgerald topped 1,000 yards receiving nine times — tied for the fourth most ever — and helped the Cardinals reach their only Super Bowl following the 2008 season. Fitzgerald set single-season records that postseason with 546 yards receiving and seven touchdown catches, including a go-ahead 64-yard score with 2:37 to play in the Super Bowl before Pittsburgh rallied for a 27-23 win over Arizona.

Rivers ranks seventh all time with 63,440 yards passing in a career spent mostly with the Chargers. He made eight Pro Bowls and won the 2013 AP Comeback Player of the Year.

Witten was one of the most prolific tight ends ever with his 1,228 catches and 13,046 yards ranking second best all time. Witten was a two-time All-Pro for Dallas and was a second-team All-Pro two other times.

Gore ranks third all time with 16,000 yards rushing with nine 1,000-yard seasons and five Pro Bowl honors.

Kuechly’s career was brief but impactful. The first-round pick by Carolina in 2012 was an All-Pro five times, with seven Pro Bowl nods and a Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Over his eight-year career, Kuechly led all linebackers in the NFL in tackles (1,090), takeaways (26), interceptions (18) and passes defensed (66).

Vinatieri was one of the most clutch kickers in NFL history, making the game-winning field goals in the first two Super Bowl victories during New England’s dynasty.

He helped launch the run with one of the game’s greatest kicks — a 45-yarder in the snow to force overtime in the “Tuck Rule” game against the Raiders in the 2001 divisional round. He made the game-winning kick in overtime to win that game and then hit a 48-yarder on the final play of a 20-17 win in the Super Bowl against the Rams.

Vinatieri is the NFL’s career leader in points (2,673) and made field goals (599) over a 24-year career with New England and Indianapolis. He also leads all players with 56 field goals and 238 points in the postseason.

Holt was a key part of the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf,” helping the team win the Super Bowl in his rookie season in 1999 and getting back there two years later. Holt led the NFL in yards receiving in 2000 and in catches and yards in 2003 when he made his only All-Pro team.

Holt finished his career with 920 catches for 13,382 yards and 74 touchdowns.

Anderson was considered one of the top right tackles in his era after being a first-round pick by Cincinnati in 1996. He spent nearly his entire career with the Bengals and made three straight All-Pro teams from 2004-06.

Dubow writes for the Associated Press.