Enter H.B. Independent’s first-ever Oscar guessing contest!

Everyone has at least one skill that doesn’t have a practical use.

Mine is the ability to name every movie ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

I absorbed that knowledge from years of reading critical studies of the Oscars, to the point where, if someone blurts out any year from 1928 to the present, I can pinpoint that year’s winner within three seconds. Go ahead, try me — my number is at the bottom of this column.

I guess having that photographic memory has one practical use: It gives me a leg up in making Oscar predictions. The last time I can remember wrongly handicapping the winner was in 1998, when I picked “Saving Private Ryan” over “Shakespeare in Love,” but I don’t think even Shakespeare’s descendants predicted that upset.

In many ways, the Best Picture race is similar to a presidential primary. Both are contests ostensibly about choosing the “best” candidate, but more often award the most politically prudent and least divisive choice. Sometimes, a movie will top the list because it’s a popular smash (“Titanic”); sometimes, voters will favor it over a volatile contender (“Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain”); other times, the Oscar serves as a consolation prize (would “The Departed” have taken the gold without Martin Scorsese‘s name on it?).

This year, the field seems more open than usual, without one film that seems a sure bet to win it all — you know, like “Saving Private Ryan” or “Brokeback Mountain.” And so, with the Oscar nominations having come out Tuesday, I propose the Independent’s first annual Outguess the City Editor Contest.

…Continue reading Enter H.B. Independent’s first-ever Oscar guessing contest!

Critic’s Choice: Restaurants with wood-burning ovens

Chef and owner Florent Marneau prepares a dish in the open kitchen at Marche' Moderne in Costa Mesa at South Coast Plaza. (Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times / June 7, 2007)

Pizza joints, many boasting wood-burning ovens, are popping up all over the Southland like chanterelles after a rainstorm. But they’re not the only restaurants working with oak or almond wood. Some chefs at other restaurants are lucky enough to have wood-fired ovens in their kitchens. They’re tricky to use, but once mastered can be a formidable tool. Cooking with fire is ancient, and I’m convinced we’re hard-wired to find any dish cooked in a wood-burning oven just that much more delicious.

Ammo: This is the little restaurant that could. Starting out as a tiny cafe grafted onto a catering kitchen, it grew by stages to become a Hollywood fixture. Chefs have come and gone, yet owner and executive chef Amy Sweeney has retained her restaurant’s soulful style. The wood-burning oven is central to that. Pizza is back on the menu now, but that oven does double duty, roasting chickens that are served up with fries and watercress salad, or braising barramundi with baby artichokes, cherry tomatoes, cannellini beans and olives.

– S. Irene Virbila, Los Angeles Times Restaurant Critic

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Theater review: ‘Topdog/Underdog’ at South Coast Repertory

Larry Bates, left, and Curtis McClarin (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times)

In Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” in revival at South Coast Repertory, characters named Lincoln and Booth by their parents as a sick joke struggle to survive the historical funhouse they’re trapped in.

The Freudian compulsion to repeat the past combines with the Marxist notion of tragedy’s inevitable return as farce — deadly farce, in the case of these two brothers holed up in a decrepit one-room apartment lacking not just a second bed but also running water and a toilet.

These men aren’t just prisoners of memory, they’re stuck in a grimy economic jail cell with little chance of parole. They laugh and poke fun out of a kind of slow-burn despair that can occasionally seem like a ghetto “Waiting for Godot.” Other times their story will have you thinking more biblically — Cain and Abel for starters.

– Charles McNult, @charlesmcnulty, Culture Monster, Los Angeles Times

…Continue reading Theater review: ‘Topdog/Underdog’ at South Coast Repertory

Elliott: Saku Koivu’s goals do the trick for Ducks

By Helene Elliott

A few weeks ago, the Ducks would have lost this game to the Dallas Stars. They had given up a two-goal lead in the third period, awakening thoughts of their many lapses during the first half of a season that has all but slipped away from them, and another loss probably would not have mattered.

After a lot of soul-searching and a threat from General Manager Bob Murray that just about everyone was available in the trade market, the Ducks woke up. On Tuesday, led by Saku Koivu‘s second career hat trick, they shrugged off the Stars’ comeback and pushed forward to a 5-2 win at Honda Center, ending a dismal first half of the season with a three-game winning streak and budding confidence.

…Continue reading Elliott: Saku Koivu’s goals do the trick for Ducks

Hearing postponed for woman accused of cutting off husband’s penis

An arraignment for a woman accused of cutting off her husband’s penis and throwing it in a garbage disposal was postponed Monday.

Catherine Kieu Becker, 49, was indicted by a grand jury on felony counts of torture and aggravated mayhem last week on allegations that she used a knife to sever her husband’s penis in July.

Her plea hearing was postponed until Feb. 2 in Santa Ana at her attorney’s request. She appeared in court briefly Monday, her hair tied in a pontytail.

Becker faces life in prison if convicted. She communicated with her lawyer through a translator.

– Nicole Santa Cruz in Santa Ana, Los Angeles Times

…Continue reading Hearing postponed for woman accused of cutting off husband’s penis

City Life: Don’t rush to make decision on charter proposal

By Steve Smith

There are people in and out of Costa Mesa who would not review a film before they’ve seen it, who would not judge a book by its cover and who would tell their kids that an open mind is important.

Yet, these same people have already decided that the charter city proposal for Costa Mesa is a bad thing.

Or a good thing.

Before even one syllable of official public discussion has taken place, these myopic citizens already know that because Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer supports the charter plan, it must be bad or that because the unions oppose it, it must be good.

…Continue reading City Life: Don’t rush to make decision on charter proposal

LAT Editorial: No end in sight for the Foothill South extension?

The beginning of the Foothill tollway in Rancho Santa Margarita. (Los Angeles Times / September 28, 2007)

The Foothill South toll-road project isn’t as dead as its opponents would like. The original, unacceptable proposal, which would have routed part of the 16-mile superhighway through the narrow length of a popular state park just south of Orange County, was rejected by the California Coastal Commission. But the Transportation Corridor Agencies are now considering a puzzling new proposal to build the first four miles of the project while they try to figure out the rest of the route the road would take.

The toll-road agency isn’t barred from trying again with a different route, but that’s not easy. If the southern end of the road were moved a little to the north of San Onofre State Beach, it would pass through the built-out areas of the city of San Clemente. Moved a little south, it would pass through Camp Pendleton, and though the agency is talking to the U.S. Marine Corps about possible options, camp officials have been consistently resistant to civilian developments in their midst.

…Continue reading LAT Editorial: No end in sight for the Foothill South extension?

Huntington Beach’s top story of 2011: Taking aim at alcohol

Huntington Beach’s top newsmaker of 2011 wasn’t a person or an organization, but rather a controlled substance.

Throughout the year, the Independent’s front page featured more drinks than a typical bachelor party. Statistics showed Huntington at the top of California cities its size in alcohol-related car accidents. State officials investigated a popular restaurant that had been tied to a large number of DUIs. Residents incited a hearing on whether downtown could have one more liquor-serving license.

At the heart of Huntington’s alcohol issues are several questions, and the answers may depend on whom you ask.

Do the downtown statistics represent an out-of-control drinking culture, or just efficient work by police in catching perpetrators? Does the actual number of alcohol licenses — 39, to be exact — make a difference? And however rambunctious the neighborhood may get after midnight, is it still an improvement over its previous self?

“I don’t know that it’s keeping anyone away from our beaches,” developer Robert Koury, who owns properties containing several bars and restaurants, said of the area’s reputation. “I see families and people of all walks of life.”

To some who have lived in Huntington for decades, the city’s modern downtown affluence is little short of miraculous. Skinheads, panhandlers and Fourth of July riots are considered things of the past. Upscale hotels line the beach, while events like the U.S. Open of Surfing make the pier a world-famous destination.

…Continue reading Huntington Beach’s top story of 2011: Taking aim at alcohol

Steve Lopez: Where are L.A. and O.C.’s best tamales?

Sandi Romero, a longtime community activist, opened Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe as a nonprofit training center for food cart vendors. (Michael Robinson Chavez , Los Angeles Times)

By Steve Lopez

Yes, I knew what I was getting into. You cannot write about food – any kind of food – without people lying in wait, eager to judge your judgments.

So my Wednesday column about some of L.A.’s best tamales has brought praise, ridicule, recommendations and even personal attacks.

As for the latter, I was flogged by readers insisting I was a moron for spelling “tamale” with an “e” on the end. A kinder, gentler reader by the name of Rafael Duran, sent me this: “Tamale is not recognized by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.”

Thanks for that, Rafael, but the Spanish word “tamal” is “tamale” in English, and the L.A. Times goes with the latter, as the word is spelled in Webster’s.

…Continue reading Steve Lopez: Where are L.A. and O.C.’s best tamales?

Plaschke: Matt Barkley’s gift to USC could keep on giving

USC quarterback Matt Barkley scrambles for yardage against Syracuse in a nonconference game earlier this season. (Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times / September 17, 2011)

By Bill Plaschke

Deck the halls with boughs of Barkley.

Three days before Christmas, the USC football program was stunned Thursday to discover three shiny, previously unobtainable objects under its tree.

A possible 2012 national championship. A possible 2012 Heisman Trophy. An impossibly glowing kid named Matt Barkley.

Yeah, he’s staying. Against all odds, he’s staying. Defying all practical advice, he’s staying.

Turning down buckets of NFL money to embrace a community of Trojans hearts, quarterback Barkley announced Thursday he was returning to school for a final college season that his presence could turn into one of the most memorable in school history.

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