3+ day, 21+ hour ago (506+ words) Fill "er up next to highland cows and a giant soda bottle Punny shirts are a big seller at Barack Obama Plaza EddieWorld is on the busy route between Los Angeles and Las Vegas If you see a giant ice cream sundae covered in sprinkles and topped with a cherry, you"re in the right place. This 70-foot sculpture (it"s built on top of a water tank) greets visitors to EddieWorld, the largest gas station in California. Its market and food area is also massive, filled with rows of candies, chocolates, nuts and dried food and stations where you can order fresh pizza, sushi, burgers, sandwiches, coffee, homemade popcorn and jerky. Take your treat to eat on the road, or stay awhile and dine on the patio (be sure to check out the Los Angeles Lakers memorabilia on display…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (487+ words) New book argues that the algorithm has killed creative originality Music is blending into an algorithm-generated playlist, cinema is dominated by blockbuster movies from decades-old franchises, and the rest of the cultural scene is as flat and bland as a pancake. "Omnivorism" is "one of the primary culprits" that Marx identifies. When "country, R&B, hip-hop and classic rock become interchangeable bits to sample, rather than distinct musical styles", then "nothing stands out". He thinks "the understandable desire to cross musical boundaries in once-unthinkable ways has turned into a slurry of stagnation". Marx's "key point about the bland sameness" of today's art "will resonate with anybody who has a hard time remembering when a new song made them perk up, pay attention and realise they have never heard anything like that before". This century "looks likely to go down in…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (443+ words) A personal, scholarly wander through a singular cuisine Telling your personal narrative through food is a common cookbook trope. Taking an anthropological wander through a peoples" " or country"s " food culture is another prevailing cookbook methodology. Less ubiquitous is an author who merges the two, swiveling a mirror to look at both themself and their ancestral background. Niloufer Ichaporia King"s 2007 masterpiece, "My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking," might be the exemplar of this double-vision. Across the book"s 300-plus pages, King tells the story of the Parsis, a group of Persians who practiced Zoroastrianism thousands of years ago and were persecuted after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Persia. As the persecuted often do, the Parsis fled. Many landed on the western coast of what is now India. This meant, for King"s family, establishing themselves in Bombay,…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (335+ words) A greedy gull, the fall of AI, and more Tourists feed black-headed gulls at the Haigeng Dam in Kunming, China Stargazers gather to watch the Southern Lights illuminating the night sky at Gerroa Headland in Kiama, Australia Protesters clash with security forces in an attempt to storm the COP30 headquarters in Belem, Brazil A Buddhist prays at the Bongeunsa Temple as students sit for the annual college entrance exam in Seoul, South Korea A southern lapwing stands next to the race track during the qualifying session of the Formula One Grand Prix in S'o Paulo, Brazil The first Russian anthropomorphic robot 'AIDOL' falls on stage during the presentation in Moscow, Russia A boy inspects burnt copies of the Quran inside a mosque that was torched and defaced by Israeli settlers in the West Bank An aerial view of graffiti protesting the…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (471+ words) This month's new releases include "Wicked: For Good,' "Die My Love' and "Train Dreams' November movies oscillate in size. There are big budgets and complex musical numbers alongside small, quiet and contemplative tales. One aspect this month's new releases have in common: They all feature someone battling something, whether it be the loss of their way of life, their own hormone-addled brain or a fantastical despot. Jennifer Lawrence stepped away from the limelight for several years, with the brief exception of the 2023 sex comedy "No Hard Feelings," to focus on her marriage and life as a new mother. It is apt, then, that her return is marked by "Die My Love," a film about a young woman named Grace who begins to experience postpartum psychosis. It has often been said that the hardest part of a veteran's life is the…...

4+ day, 14+ hour ago (581+ words) Imagining " and fearing " the future continues to give us compelling and thoughtful television A generation ago, sci-fi aficionados were lucky if there were one or two remotely watchable shows released a year. Today, the streaming economy serves up a reliable supply of lavishly produced, inventive science fiction. It includes many shows, like the tremendous new Apple TV+ release "Pluribus," that carry on the tradition of great speculative storytelling. The crew's encounters with the terrifying hive mind race the Borg were among the best. That's why "almost anyone would appreciate the smart, original storytelling" of the show's seven seasons, said Phelim O'Neill at The Guardian. It was a "less violent, more cerebral show, with a cast of rare chemistry and ability." (Paramount+) The third season was a particularly incisive commentary on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A "thrifty U.S./UK co-production peppered with…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (444+ words) Treat yourself with chocolate experiences, both internal and external The cacao ceremony at W Punta de Mita honors the area's past At the blissful W Punta de Mita in Riviera Nayarit, guests can take part in a cacao ceremony, an ancient ritual "honoring the Mayan ancestors of the region," said Forbes. Cacao beans were sacred to the Maya, with chocolate considered food for the Gods, and this ritual is meant to stir "self-reflection and spiritual awakenings." Led by a shaman, the ceremony takes place outside of the hotel on the white sand beach, with participants drinking the cacao before relaxing with a sound bath meditation. The experience leaves guests energized and renewed. Guests can take home with them chocolate made from beans grown at Jade Mountain Resort Other interactive activities include truffle making and tempering chocolate. Book the Chocolate Alchemy…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (582+ words) True stories, social commentary and pure escapism highlight these great robbery movies Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) are the glamorous outlaws based on the true story of the bank-robbing, kidnapping duo that terrorized the Dust Bowl between 1932 and 1934. Bonnie is a waitress who falls in with small-time criminal Clyde, as they set off a multi-state crime spree that was front-page national news. Thieves nab French crown jewels from Louvre From Da Vinci to a golden toilet: a history of museum heists Frauds: "fantastically stylish" heist caper is "damn good fun" Director Kathryn Bigelow (whose new nuclear thriller "A House of Dynamite" is currently streaming on Netflix) delivers a "celebration not only of the spectacular pleasures of surfing and skydiving and chasing bank robbers" but also of the "remarkably visceral extremes that violence itself can achieve when…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (525+ words) This month's new releases include "Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts" by Margaret Atwood, "Cursed Daughters" by Oyinkan Braithwaite and 'Without Consent' by Sarah Weinman November books are not playing around. This month"s new releases are searing and serious stories of women"s suffering, wrath and progress. They include a non-fiction exploration of the laws surrounding spousal consent, a fiction about the complicated relationships between women in a family and the life story of Canada"s foremost feminist novelist. This memoir from the Canadian author of "The Handmaid"s Tale" spans almost 600 pages and "more than most literary memoirs, is a vessel of wrath," said Dwight Garner at The New York Times. Luckily, "wrath is interesting." As with her first novel, Braithwaite"s second shares a "lingering fascination with the dark secrets that might bind the women of…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (638+ words) From workplace satire to family dysfunction, nothing is sacred for these renowned, boundary-pushing comedies The better-known American remake toned down this caustic British original, which ran for just two seasons and a two-part "Christmas special" denouement. Ricky Gervais plays David Brent, the office manager of a middling paper company in Slough whose crippling insecurity manifests as constant, cringey manipulation of his exasperated employees. The 8 best dark comedies of the 21st century Tim Robinson falls out of a chair, chefs compete for Michelin stars and Martin Scorsese gets the documentary treatment in October TV The best comedy series to stream right now But because Dory barely knew Chantal, it's clear that the "search" is really a stand-in for the hollowness at the core of these characters. The "pitch-black" show's ultimate target is the "tendency to confuse the ego-stroking virtual busywork of the…...