It started like most of my trips do, by coming across a cheap airfare. I’d only been to Vienna once, decades ago, loved it and always meant to go back. But did I really want to go in winter, when it’s bone-chilling cold, even if I could fly there for only $400 roundtrip? I’m a California girl, after all.

The answer was yes, of course it would be worth it. I pondered going for the elaborate Christmas markets for which the city is famous, but it’s too hard to get away in December, what with the holidays and all.

Then, I remembered I’d always wanted to see the famed snow-white Lippizaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School, and I’d read about the hundreds of balls that take place each winter. Plus, Vienna is considered the world’s best city for classical music, and winter is when the scene is in high gear. Not all that surprising, really, considering it’s too cold to do much else.

In fact, my love of grand opera began there some 40 years ago, when my friend and I discovered we could buy standing room tickets for that night’s performance of “Salome” at the box office for the Staatsoper, the Vienna Opera House. We paid the equivalent of 91 cents. The evening was enchanting and unforgettable.

Nowadays, there’s no way I’m standing for three hours, but I’m still cheap, so I paid 16 Euros (around $20) for obstructed view tickets to “The Marriage of Figaro.” Mozart wrote the opera in his house nearby and it premiered in Vienna in 1786. We were in our cheap seats in the third row of a box, so couldn’t see the whole stage, but we saw enough to enjoy the show. It’s definitely worth going to see this Renaissance and Gothic revival palace of music, opened in 1869, even if you’re not an opera fan, but it’s essential to get advance tickets online, although you can still get standing room tickets at the box office on the same day. They’re not 91 cents anymore, but still pretty cheap.

Back when we bought our plane tickets in September, I couldn’t stop the ridiculous thoughts of going to a ball. I’m 69 years old — a little long in the tooth to pretend to be Cinderella. I live in T-shirts and mom jeans. I owned nothing that could be worn to a fancy occasion, let alone a ball. But the idea kept growing on me, until finally it popped out, fully grown. I needed to go to a ball. Any ball. No one was inviting me back home, so I clearly needed to go to Vienna.

Luckily, my friend Lori agreed to come with me (She’s weird too).  I went online and bought tickets for 210 Euros each to the Coffee Brewers Ball — supposedly one of the best in the city. (Don’t laugh, coffee is a religion there.) Then, of course, we had to go buy formal evening gowns, shoes, stockings, clutches and gloves. I found The Dress Outlet in the downtown L.A. garment district that had plus size dresses, and scored a silver sequined gown on sale for $59. We also bought enough cold weather clothing to outfit a polar expedition — and we needed it.

On arrival, we checked into the lovely 130-year-old Hotel Kaiserhof, an antique-filled place with a kind, helpful staff.

On our first morning, we headed to the Belvedere Museum, a baroque former palace that retains its grandeur. The acres of gorgeous gardens were frozen in January, but the palace retains its massive crystal chandeliers, painted ceilings, gilt trim and all its imperial splendor.

Our destination was the collection of paintings by Gustav Klimt, including his most famous, “The Kiss.” The artist used real gold in their construction they glow even today. This did not disappoint.

Afterward, we headed to the Hofburg Palace, where we’d reserved a walking tourof the Imperial Apartments, including the Sisi Museum. Sisi was the nickname of Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We’d recently watched an engrossing PBS series about her life. In a story that is possibly apocryphal, she was 16 years old when she accompanied her aristocratic Bavarian family to Vienna, where her sister Helene was to meet Emperor Franz Joseph, to whom she was already engaged to be married. But when they arrived, the emperor was so smitten with Sisi that he broke his engagement to her older sister, and married her instead. That was only the beginning of a thoroughly unique life for a royal wife.

After touring the excessively grand Imperial Apartments, I felt my little tract house at home was a little lacking. But then I don’t need dozens of servants to take care of it.

Our next big adventure was visiting the Spanish Riding School, which has been famous for its pure white “dancing” Lippizaner stallions for hundreds of years. The name dates back to a former emperor, a Habsburg from Spain, who brought his horses with him. The first mention of a riding arena on the site dates back to 1565. And, to this day, they are meticulously trained from colts to perform spectacular feats of dressage, including some who can lift their front legs and seem to prance off the ground.

For horse lovers, it’s a breathtaking treat to see them. After the performance, we took a guided tour of their stables, where the equines are treated like the stars they truly are. Each horse has its own rider, who trains it from a young age and stays with the horse until it retires. We got a look at their fancy show tack, including bridles and saddles, and learned about their lives. We weren’t allowed to pet them, which I understand because strangers could make them sick, but it was hard to keep my hands in my pockets. The tour was supposed to last an hour but actually was only 37 minutes, which was annoying, but still worthwhile.

And then there were the balls. I was able to get press tickets to see the annual Vienna Philharmonic Ball, which is one of the most sought-after and prestigious in the city. Tickets go on sale in January. This year, the 100-year-old event sold out in only 80 minutes, according to the ball director, Paul Halwax.

Each year, workers remove all the seating from the elegant, gilded Musikverein — the concert hall where the famed Vienna Philharmonic plays — and turn it into a ballroom that can hold some 2,600 people. And we felt like we encountered all of them, as the elegantly attired guests were crammed cheek-to-jowl in the huge space. In addition to the main ballroom, there were bars and other places to hear music and dance the night away, and I mean that literally. Vienna balls generally start around 9 p.m. with a processional of white-clad debutantes dancing, and then continue all night until 4:30 or 5 a.m. punctuated by special events such as ballet or opera performances.  Afterward, attendees ignore their sore feet and head out to get traditional Vienna sausages for breakfast before going home.

The most elegant balls, like the Philharmonic, are unyielding about their dress codes: White tie and tails for men and long evening gowns for ladies. Some balls allow tuxedos as well. People who turn up underdressed are turned away with regrets. Every year, some ladies show up in short cocktail dresses, and are sometimes irate at being refused entry, even though every venue, often even the tickets themselves, describe the dress code in advance. The Philharmonic ball, ever solicitous of its elite guests, provides seamstresses, hairdressers and cosmeticians on site for emergency repairs.

Vienna is known as the city of balls, and some 400 are held annually, sponsored by trade associations or other groups. The official ball season starts on Nov. 11 at 11:11 a.m. Most of the balls are held in carnival season of January and February, ending by Ash Wednesday, but there are some outliers at other times as well. Generally, anyone can buy a ticket to a ball, but be warned that they typically sell out.

For this trip, I had to break my cardinal cheapskate rule of never paying to check a bag at the airport, because bringing an evening gown (actually two, because I bought one for the opera as well)- was impossible in my tiny carry-on bag.

Keep this in mind, though: Regular tickets only get you in the door, to watch and dance. If you want a place to sit, you need to reserve a seat at a table. This will cost considerably more, but it’s well worth it when your tootsies are sore and you need a break. Waiters are also on hand to bring food and drink, at additional cost. Champagne is by far the most popular option. Tickets for table seats are often for sale before regular tickets. There are typically also fancy boxes for sale, with as you can imagine, higher prices.

Being cheapskates, we didn’t have seats, so by 1:30 a.m. our dogs were barking. But, surprisingly, the fairy tale atmosphere was so enchanting that I didn’t even feel tired, but our bodies couldn’t take any more.

The following night, we repeated the magical experience, this time in the Hofburg Palace. The Coffeehouse Owners Ball is so vast that it takes over all the ballrooms in the palace. With more space, it was less crowded than the night before, so cooler. The orchestra in the main ballroom, which accomodated thousands of dancers, played waltzes and also other dances, even sedate rock ‘n’ roll. Other smaller ballrooms offered more dancing, including sambas, tangos, swing and more. Later in the evening, a jazz club and disco opened. The entire place remained buzzing until the wee hours, but again we had to reluctantly leave as our aching feet disappointed us.

Incidentally, Vienna was the first place I ever drank real, delicious dark roast coffee all those years ago, long before it became popular in the U.S. In fact, the aromatic beverage is practically a sacrament in Vienna, which is why there’s a ball dedicated to it. The menu at our hotel breakfast offered us nine different varieties, with lattes, espressos and other drinks with which I wasn’t acquainted.

The next day, after two balls in a row, I scarcely got out of my comfy hotel bed except to get downstairs in time for free breakfast. I’m old, after all. Even in my sleep, I was still humming the waltzes I’d heard. In fact, I’m still humming them to this day.

When I planned this adventure, I presumed it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But now, I’m even considering doing it again. The balls were so grand and overwhelmingly beautiful. The winter season in January means no crowds at any tourist attraction. We walked right into museums that have long lines in the summer.

But brrrr…it’s so darn cold! There’s no lingering strolls and window shopping, at least not for these weenie California girls. And Vienna is a city of beautiful gardens, all of which were cold and dead in January.

This is something I must contemplate further, although I know I’ll be back to Vienna again, and hopefully soon. It is a magical place.

If you go:

• What’s in a name? Vienna is the city’s English name, but it’s called Wien (pronounced veen) in German. Also note that nearly all Austrian tourism websites have a toggle at the top that will allow you to translate them into English.
• Spanish Riding School: Make sure you have advance reservations to see the stallions. Buy tickets here: srs.at/en
• Music: The main opera house is the Wiener Staatsoper, a spectacular palace of music that has performances of various types most every night. wiener-staatsoper.at, The other main opera house is the Volksoper Wien, which hosts operas, operettas and musicals. volksoper.at There are too many music venues to list here, but the most famous is the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s greatest orchestras, which performs at the Musikverein.
• Balls: Vienna is known as the city of balls, and its estimated that some 400 are held annually. Generally, anyone can buy a ticket to a ball, which does not include seating. Tickets are already on sale for next January’s Coffeehouse Owners Ball. at kaffeesiederball.at.
• Museums: Vienna has a dizzying number of museums, including spectacular former palaces. You can also visit the homes of famous people, including Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Strauss and Sigmund Freud.
• Where to stay: We liked the mid-priced boutique Hotel Kaiserhof, which has an elevator, bar, room service, breakfast buffet and friendly staff. It’s located in the Fourth District, close to public transportation and the historic attractions in the First District. hotel-kaiserhof.at/wien

By ANITA SNOW

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Wearing an oxygen pack on her back for her COPD, Marcia OBara is leading a group of nature enthusiasts on a mission to see birds. They carry walking sticks on the flat trails, moving at their own pace, without pressure or competition and enjoying a sense of community.

This is Birding for Every BODY, one of numerous such excursions offered each month by the nonprofit Tucson Bird Alliance with Arizona’s Pima County.

It’s part of a growing national movement to help people with physical and other limitations experience birding and nature in general.

“It’s an opportunity for people to get out and see birds without pressure, no matter how long it takes or how many birds we see,” said OBara, a retired nurse who has been leading the accessible outings for three years. She said disabled people often cannot keep up on traditional outings, especially when competitive birders are focused on checking off a list of the greatest possible number of species.

For her accessible walks, OBara ensures that all trails are easily traversable, and bathrooms are open and large enough to accommodate mobility scooters and wheelchairs. She checks on the availability of drinking water, shade and benches. Once a walk gets underway, OBara checks to ensure everyone is keeping up, then modulates the pace as needed.

“I used to work in rehab, so I usually know what people need,” OBara said.

While the outings are open to those with wheelchairs and mobility scooters, people who use those devices rarely attend the walks, OBara said, perhaps because they don’t think they’ll be able to keep up.

“But we’d encourage them to come,” OBara said.

Enjoying nature and community

On one of several walks she led in February at Tucson-area parks, OBara pointed out a phainopepla, a slender, crested bird perched on a mesquite tree that adores the bright red berries of desert mistletoe clumped on the branches. Quacking mallards and other ducks swam in ponds or pecked the ground.

“It’s nice to just be outside and not think of anything else,” said Rhea Guertin, a retired Rhode Island snowbird who spends four months in Tucson each winter. She used a walking pole for stability.

“I’m just slow,” she explained.

Evelyn Spitzer, a retired Tucson-area teacher, used a walking pole for her heart condition and the lingering effects of a recent surgery.

The organized effort to share birding with people with limitations goes back at least to 2018, when retired Texas teacher Virginia Rose founded the nonprofit Birdability. Rose has used a wheelchair since suffering a spinal injury at age 14.

On smooth trails or from the back deck

“Our vision is that birding be truly for everybody and every BODY, regardless of disability,” said Cat Fribley, Birdability’s executive director. She said participants’ limitations include mobility issues, blindness or low vision, chronic illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental illness. Some are neurodivergent, deaf, hard of hearing or have other health concerns.

Fribley, who has a mobility scooter for multiple disabilities, said she can go five or six miles while birding on the accessible paths in her residential community in Iowa City, Iowa.

“In the winter, I bird on my back deck with my coffee,” she said.

Other examples of accessible birding include watching from a car, from a canoe on a river, or simply through a kitchen window, advocates said.

Maps and apps

Birdability has helped compile a crowdsourced map of accessible birding locations nationwide in partnership with the National Audubon Society, and offers advice to able-bodied birders on how to be more welcoming and inclusive.

The group’s website has many other resources and adaptive devices, such as car-window mounts for cameras, and apps that blind people and others can use to identify and record birdsong.

Occupational therapist Freya McGregor recommends binocular harnesses, which are strapped around the back and chest, saying they’re easier on the shoulders and neck than binoculars that hang around the neck.

McGregor — who has a permanent knee injury — runs Access Birding, which trains nature organizations such as state parks and local Audubon chapters on making trails accessible.

Birding by ear

Birding “really brings you joy,” said Jerry Berrier, a 73-year-old Massachusetts birder who has been blind since birth. “There is happiness from being out in nature.”

Berrier got hooked as a college student when he learned to identify a huge number of bird calls and songs to satisfy the lab requirement for a biology class. He later taught blind and blind-deaf people how to negotiate the use of laptops and cellphones at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts.

He captures avian songs and calls for his website, www.birdblind.org, to help blind bird enthusiasts record and share their own. Last year, he launched the “Any Bird, Any Body” podcast with his friend, Gary Haritz.

Berrier also helped organize the first national bird-a-thon for blind enthusiasts in the U.S. It drew several hundred participants last year, who reported the birdcalls they heard over 24 hours. The event goes international this year on May 3-4.

“We encourage people to reach out to local organizations to help blind people with the bird-a-thon, he said. “A disability can be very isolating.”

Anita Snow wrote for The Associated Press for more than 35 years before retiring a year ago. When she’s not birding, she writes freelance articles from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

By ROBIN ARZON

This recipe is from the “I Love Sandwiches” chapter in my cookbook “Eat to Hustle.” The chapter is basically my love letter to road-trip food made healthier — inspired by fast-food classics, gas-station gems, and deli-counter staples that I thought I’d never get to eat again after going vegan.

My versions hit just as hard, especially because they’re loaded with plant-based protein, so your body enjoys them just as much as you do.

Traditional sloppy joes are way too sweet and ketchup-y for my taste. I like to think my version is a little more refined — still hearty and meaty from the lentils, with a smoky, savory sauce that’s just the right amount of tangy. Serve the hearty filling on high-protein buns and watch them disappear.

Napkins definitely required.

Lentil Sloppy Joes

Servings: 4 sandwiches

2 tablespoons avocado oil

Ingredients

½ medium white onion, diced

½ green bell pepper, seeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons coconut sugar

2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce or coconut aminos

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups cooked lentils

4 high-protein burger buns, such as Hero

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200°F. In a large skillet, heat the avocado oil over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the pepper is soft, about 4 minutes.

Stir in the tomato sauce, coconut sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, salt, paprika, red pepper and black pepper. Let the mixture come to a simmer, then stir in the lentils to coat. Simmer until the lentils are warmed through and the sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes.

While the lentils are simmering, split the burger buns and arrange on the oven rack to toast. Divide the sloppy joes mixture among the toasted buns and serve immediately.

Robin Arzón is head instructor and vice president of fitness and programming at Peloton. She’s also a bestselling author. She lives in New York City with her husband, Drew, and their children Athena Amelia and Atlas Sage.

Excerpted from “Eat to Hustle” by Robin Arzón. Copyright (copyright) 2026 by Robin Arzón. Used with permission of Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. All rights reserved.

By THOMAS ADAMSON

PARIS (AP) — He is known as the French Banksy — or simply JR. Now the artist popular across France for large-scale projects, from photographs to graffiti and street art, wants Parisians to do something unusual on the city’s arguably most famous bridge: stop.

In June, he plans to transform the bustling Pont Neuf that dates back to the 17th century into a walk-through “cave” — a temporary, monumental public artwork that will cover the stone arches with a rocky illusion and invite visitors to cross the River Seine through a tunnel, complete with sound and digitally augmented reality.

He says it’s possibly the “largest immersive installation ever made” and — one that will be accessible around the clock and offer a “totally different approach” to the bridge.

“We’re about to leave something pretty incredible in the middle of Paris,” JR told The Associated Press at his studio in eastern Paris, wearing his trademark hat and shades.

His project, the Pont Neuf Cavern is to run June 6-28, spanning 120 meters (yards) in length and over 17 meters in height.

A tribute — and a gamble

The installation is a nod to a Paris legend: the late artistic duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude who in 1985 wrapped Pont Neuf — and its streetlamps — in a pale golden fabric. The project, which took years of negotiations with the authorities, helped define the genre of monumental public art in modern cities across the world.

To JR, the homage is both aesthetic and personal.

“I had the chance to meet Christo along the years,” he said. “We had big respect for each other’s work.”

While walking recently on the street with an AP crew, an older woman stopped JR — now, a household name in his country — to share her memories of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapping. She told him she was excited to see the bridge transformed again.

Still, JR — a pseudonym stemming from first name, Jean-René — acknowledges the weight of following in the iconic pair’s footsteps.

“It’s pretty hard to go after them,” he said, “but I’m doing it in a very different style, in my own way.”

His idea is about “bringing back mineral and nature” to the heart of Paris.

From the outside, his installation will make Pont Neuf look “as if it has been overtaken by a prehistoric outcrop,” a structure visible along the banks of the Seine — a rocky mass that is “literally going to break the landscape,” he said.

Two experiences: the city, then the cave

JR said there will be two main ways for people to experience his installation. From the outside, those heading to Pont Neuf will see the giant installation hundreds of meters away.

And from the inside, once visitors enter the “cave” on Pont Neuf, they will be able to walk through a long tunnel-like structure, having a feeling of “total immersion,” he said.

The cave will allow no daylight in and once inside, visitors “will lose track of time,” JR said.

A key collaborator on the project is Thomas Bangalter, a former member of French rock band Daft Punk who is creating the sound to accompany the installation — “something you’ll only hear from the inside,” JR said.

Snap’s AR studio in Paris is developing the augmented reality technology. Visitors will be able to use their smartphones to “experience and see things that you can’t see with your eyes,” JR said.

He is intentionally mysterious about what that is — keeping it a surprise until closer to the opening.

JR’s team conducted extensive engineering studies, including tests in a hangar at Paris’ Orly airport, to understand how the structure behaves, especially in an emergency when the electricity that fuels the cave’s air supply cuts off. Tests show the structure stays the same. There is also the security question — the bridge is a busy zone, especially during Paris’ tourist-packed early summer.

JR said visitor numbers will be limited at any given time, and that his team is consulting with authorities on that. During the three weeks of the exhibition, the installation will be continuously monitored.

A cave, and a metaphor

JR is best known for his large-scale art — enormous portraits pasted on buildings, border walls and rooftops. Because of his origins in graffiti and street art he has inevitably drawn comparison with Banksy, the elusive U.K.-based artist famous for his huge murals and activism.

JR’s installation will not have any massive faces, but the theme is still human, he says: gathering, connection, and what people project onto a shared space.

He says his installation is also an allusion to Plato’s allegory of the cave in which chained men interpret shadows on the cave wall as reality, ignorant of the real world outside — and compares that to the fake reality created by the visual world of our social media platforms.

“What are our caves today is our phone,” JR said, “because we … believe that … our algorithm on social media … is the reality.”

During the installation, which will coincide with June’s Paris Fashion Week and World Music Day, the bridge will close to traffic.

By Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Some of this year’s Oscar-nominated documentary shorts hit so hard, viewers may be grateful to come across one that simply follows donkeys visiting an observatory in the desert — even if it bumps up against the very boundaries of the genre.

‘All the Empty Rooms’

Director Joshua Seftel hadn’t spoken with his former colleague, longtime CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman, in 25 years. Then Hartman, famed for stories of human kindness and compassion, reached out: He and photojournalist Lou Bopp had been documenting bedrooms left behind by children killed in American school shootings.

“I said to him, ‘This could be a great film,’” says Seftel, though Hartman asked not to be in it. “I said, ‘You are the “Good News Guy” and people trust you. If the Good News Guy is telling you he’s got some bad news, people are going to listen.’ ”

The rooms provide silent testament to those who once lived there. One is festooned in SpongeBob memorabilia; another contains the rack on which a girl would arrange her outfits for the week.

“You meet these families and hear the stories and there’s a heaviness” in the rooms, says Seftel. He says he could see them weigh on Bopp and Hartman. A filmmaker friend, on seeing the film, told Seftel, “Steve Hartman is a haunted man.”

‘Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud’

Brent Renaud and his brother, Craig, made documentaries in Haiti, Egypt, Iraq and other hot spots, and won awards for their portrait of a troubled Chicago school. Then, while covering the war in Ukraine, Brent was killed by Russian soldiers.

“For Brent, it was always a focus on people caught in the middle of conflicts,” says Craig Renaud. “Going back to the front lines over and over again, we often had to be on the ground for months at a time in these war zones.”

Included in the clips of Brent Renaud’s work: a weeping Iraqi woman clutching the bloody jeans of her slain son; Renaud interviewing a Honduran boy embarking on the hazardous trek to the U.S. on his own; and a Somali man telling Renaud, “The way you hold the camera, you’re doing it from your heart.”

It also includes casual mention of his diagnosis as neurodivergent.

“He’s calm as a monk in a firefight,” Craig Renaud says, “but a cocktail party in Brooklyn is absolutely terrifying.”

‘Children No More: Were and Are Gone’

In Tel Aviv, a group of Israeli protesters stands silently, holding posters emblazoned with the faces of Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military.

“They didn’t choose to be part of this war,” says Israeli filmmaker Hilla Medalia. “They were killed not because they brought it on themselves, but because someone decided they needed to die.”

Medalia’s film follows activists whose silent vigils draw both support and condemnation. So far, despite sometimes having to abandon their protests when situations become potentially threatening, they remain undaunted.

“Their focus is to stop the war and this war crime and other things that are happening in our name, and to force the general public to confront those images and to look at the kids and to feel for them,” Medalia says. “It’s amazing to me how humanity and compassion become an act of resistance.”

‘The Devil Is Busy’

At a women’s health clinic in Atlanta, a typical day includes religious protesters on megaphones (“All men,” points out co-director Geeta Gandbhir) and women seeking help only to discover their pregnancies are just past the six-week mark, making terminating them illegal in Georgia.

“We decided to focus on the providers,” says Gandbhir. “They’re putting themselves at risk to provide care. What you see are the hurdles they face.”

Co-director Christalyn Hampton says the burdens on these independent clinics have drastically increased as about 50 Planned Parenthood sites closed last year. She points out the spectrum of healthcare provided and the complexity of situations for both patients, many of whom must travel considerable distances, and providers.

“When the technician is giving the young lady a sonogram, the [patient] goes through several emotions: She’s happy, she’s crying, she’s nervous. That speaks to the vulnerability these women feel when they have to make certain decisions. That emotional moment [reminds us] of that human aspect.”

‘Perfectly a Strangeness’

A trio of donkeys traverses a desert to an observatory. Captured with creative camera angles and accompanied by an imaginative score, Alison McAlpine’s film pushes the boundaries of what documentaries are.

While shooting her previous feature in Chile, McAlpine noticed donkeys hanging out around an observatory. “We hired three gentle donkeys [for the film]. It was a combination of trying to direct the donkeys up from the valley to the observatory, and sometimes we just followed the donkeys.”

McAlpine acknowledges that her film has been difficult to categorize. “Sometimes it’s at IDFA, which is an international documentary festival. Sometimes it’s just competing with fiction, where it’s been lucky to win awards sometimes. But what is a documentary? As soon as you put on a lens and a frame, it’s a personal document, not something objective.

“I’ve been moved because people have been touched; they seem to be transported elsewhere, which is what one wants as a filmmaker.”

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Malia Mendez, Los Angeles Times

According to relationship scientist Paul Eastwick, online dating is a market where there are dramatic winners and losers. “I think our modern existence happens to pull from modes of interaction that really amp up the importance of mate value,” Eastwick said. “But it does not have to be this way, and for a long time, it was not this way.”

This is the genesis of Eastwick’s decades-long research about how people initiate and maintain close relationships. His new book “Bonded by Evolution: The New Science of Love and Connection” argues against evolutionary psychology’s philosophy of dating and relationships — debunking ideas like money matters most to women, looks matter most to men and everyone has an inherent objective “mate value.” In his work, the University of California Davis psychology professor offers a dating and relationships alternative in which compatibility trumps all.

Since the dawn of his career, Eastwick has had more than one bone to pick with evolutionary psychology.

The theoretical approach, which studies human behavior, cognition and emotions as products of natural selection, depicts relationship formation as sales-like, highly gendered and strategy-based. That model, which Eastwick calls the “EvoScript,” has never squared with his view of close relationships.

The researcher has long viewed the EvoScript as outdated and exaggerated if not completely incorrect. But it was only a few years ago, when online communities of so-called incels started latching onto evolutionary psychology’s story of close relationships that he began to see the EvoScript as dangerous.

“It was upon realizing that there’s this fun house mirror version of [evolutionary] psych out there that I was like, I think it’s time,” Eastwick said. “There was a wake-up call for me that, we need a scientific book out there that’s going to bring the most contemporary science to people.”

In his work, Eastwick argues that desirability is subjective and unpredictable — and that all anyone really wants is a secure attachment bond that sustains them through good and bad seasons.

The Times talked to Eastwick about how to reimagine the dating “numbers game,” tips for better dates and why men and women ultimately want the same thing.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You write in your book that “online dating can bring the worst parts of dating to the fore by exaggerating gender differences and making you feel like a clearance item at the bottom of the bin.” What are the long-term and short-term psychological effects of that on people as they go through their dating lives?

“It makes dating feel a little bit like a job, like you’re making sales pitches, and you can set your sights high, but ultimately you’re going to have to settle. It makes the whole thing feel like you’re trying to get a deal, and I just think these are bad metaphors, especially if we want to be happy in the long run. But there is a slow burn approach that feels more like finding connection, opening oneself up, spending time getting to know other people sometimes just for the sake of getting to know other people. Part of what I want to do in the book is remind people that there are other ways — and those other ways also happen to be more democratic, for lack of a better word there — that pull for more idiosyncrasy and give more people a chance to find partners that will really appeal to them.

If you’re trying to tackle the EvoScript, as you call it, what is your thesis about dating?

My thesis is that, if we want to think about the nature of human relationships, how did people evolve to form close relationships, I would describe it as a search for compatibility in small groups. What people classically have looked for and what classically makes for the best, most satisfying pairings are finding and building something compatible with another person from a pretty limited range of options.

OK , so I need to meet people in person. I need to make friend groups. Where do you go to do that now, when things are expensive and a lot of life is online?

For somebody who’s heterosexual, if you’re a woman, it’s like, “OK, where am I gonna meet guys? Where are the guys out there?” Don’t worry if the guys are going to be there, because oftentimes when people meet partners, it’s like, friends of friends of friends, right? It’s all making connections. Maybe it’s sports, maybe it’s activities, maybe it’s a cooking class, maybe it’s a dancing class. Maybe it’s just calling back up the people from your last job that you haven’t seen in a while, getting together over drinks and making it a regular thing. I get it, people are really busy, and everything online is a draw. But the importance of hanging out with people in person, those loose acquaintances, that’s where so much of the magic happens.

People talk a lot about how it’s just a numbers game: You have to go on more dates, you have to swipe on more people. What’s your response to that?

It is a numbers game, but maybe, let’s think about the numbers like this. Rather than numbers of people, it’s numbers of interactions. So you could meet 12 people one time, or you could meet three people four times. I choose the second one, right? Meet fewer people more times. We’re still talking about numbers. We’re still talking about how much time you’re out there interacting with people, figuring out whether you click. But 20-minute coffee dates really pull for a snap judgment. In a perfect world, swiping right on somebody would mean I’m going to do a coffee date with you, and then we’re going to go to some interactive class, and then we’re going to go to a concert and I’m going to spend time with you in all three settings and kind of see how that goes in total and then assess it. So it’s not that the numbers game is misguided, you do have to get out there and try different things, but we often think, “Oh, I can just sample people really briefly, and eventually I’ll get lucky.” The smaller those samples are, the more painful this whole thing gets.

Coffee dates feel like interviews to me. But from a scientific standpoint, why do you recommend an activity-based date over the classic coffee date?

The best evidence that we have for what can you do to make yourself more appealing to someone is not to share your CV and impress them with those details. Do something that reveals a little bit about who you are, how you interact, how you relate to the world, and, best of all, something a little bit vulnerable about yourself. The 36 Questions test, sometimes called the Fast Friends procedure, is truly the best tool we have. Within an hour or two of something interactive, people have gotten to the point where they’re willing to talk about things that they regret, or things that they really like about the other person that they’ve just gotten to know. And this is all in that Fast Friends procedure. So when I think about people doing activities where their attention isn’t just on interview mode, it’s like, “Oh, we’re tackling something together,” it really decreases that self-promotion instinct, which is usually misguided.

In your book, you call compatibility “curated, cultivated and constructed.” Does that mean, to you, that you can theoretically be compatible with anyone?

If you take this idea to its extreme, if you push me, ultimately I land on probably. And of all the things I say that people are going to be resistant to, I think that’s the one that people are like, “No.” Again, I go back to the people involved in small groups. They made relationships work with the limited number of options that were available, and because we are creatures who engage in motivated reasoning, it is very, very possible to be happy with who you’re with, but that does not mean that people just get to turn off all of the alternatives that exist. I think the best way to think about it is, I think a lot of pairs have compatibility potential, but I also think that the many decisions along the way matter a lot.

If the idea of romantic destiny is, as you call it in your book, “the weakest idea ever promoted by scientists,” what is your number-one dating myth you feel your personal research has debunked?

That men and women want different things out of partnerships, that they’re either pulling for different traits or look like these totally different entities, I just think the evidence for this is completely wrong. We see differences when you ask men and women, “What do you want in a partner?” But when you look at the attributes that actually matter, it’s really amazing the extent to which men and women are similar. And it’s not to say that there are no differences, like there is a difference in the strength of the sex drive thing. It’s smaller than people say, but it is there. But if you think about, what do men and women want out of a close relationship? What they really want is somebody who’s going to be supportive, is going to celebrate my successes and is going to have my back.

How do people practically apply that in their dating lives?

Refocusing on attachment, I hope that reduces some of the heteropessimism out there in the world. We have arrived at this very bleak view of relations between men and women, like we see the world differently, we’re just always at odds. And boy, when you come at relationships with this attachment frame, and you look at the things that make people happy, men and women can absolutely build beautiful things working together, and they often do. Because we are creatures who attach, there is so much potential for genuine connection over a sustained period of time.

Do you have any predictions for what the future of dating might look like?

It certainly feels like people are getting tired of the apps and that they’re looking for more ways to socialize in person. I think that’s wonderful. I worry about what AI is going to do, like, is that going to feel so real that it causes our interactional muscles to atrophy? That’s the big question mark on the horizon. I’m not here to be grandpa, but I also hope that we don’t totally lose the ability to interact with real people.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By JESSICA DAMIANO

I’m currently dusting off my seed-starting supplies and sorting through seed packets from years past. Seed starting is an annual ritual for many gardeners, but if you’re new to the party, it would be helpful to know that not all seeds should be treated the same way.

Many seeds only require soil and water to sprout. Others, however, have a harder coating that makes germination a bit difficult. That’s because in the wild, they rely on birds and other wildlife that eat them to carry them far distances before dropping them.

It’s a good plan: The journey ensures biodiversity by introducing the species to another location. And the seed’s tough outer coating ensures its survival through an animal’s digestive tract, which erodes only enough of the protective layer to allow water to enter. The remaining coating prevents the seed from waking up too early, which would otherwise spell death for tender sprouts in cold temperatures.

But nature’s survival plan creates a bit of a challenge for home gardeners because the hard coating prevents those seeds from sprouting easily. So it’s up to us to mimic the effects of stomach acid to expose the seed’s inner layer so that moisture can penetrate.

This is called scarification, and there are a few ways to do it, all of which are simple.

Sanding

Rub each seed lightly against medium-grit sandpaper, an emery board or a nail file until you see a hint of its paler inner layer. This method works best with larger seeds, but you can also tuck several small ones between two sheets of sandpaper and gently rub the sheets together. Just a little friction should do the trick.

Nicking

Sometimes I use small nail clippers intended for babies to snip a tiny sliver off the edge of the seed’s coat.

Soaking

If you have more time than wherewithal, this is the easiest method: Place the seeds in a bowl, cover them with warm water, and let them sit for a few hours or overnight. They’ll swell slightly as they take in moisture, which is exactly what you want.

Some tips

Never use hot water; cooked seeds won’t grow. Keep the temperature below 150 degrees Fahrenheit. And whatever method you choose, do it right before planting. Once the seed’s inner tissue is exposed, it will begin to dry out.

Is scarification absolutely required? No. Seeds will often sprout without it, but it could take much longer, and you’ll likely end up with far fewer seedlings. Scarified seeds don’t have to wait around for their coats to break down under soil, which is a real advantage if your growing season is short, your elevation is high or you’re a procrastinator.

Some common annuals and perennials that benefit from the practice include Indian mallow (Abutilon), columbine (Aquilegia), hollyhock (Alcea), sweet alyssum (Alyssum), milkweed (Asclepias), wild indigo (Baptisia), beautyberry (Callicarpa), bellflower (Campanula), Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), bluebonnet (Lupine), mallow (Malva), poppy (Papaver), beardtongue (Penstemon) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum).

Edibles to scarify include all bean types, luffa, spinach, strawberry and winter squash.

Some of the really stubborn seeds — chickpeas, lima beans, nasturtiums — respond well to a one-two approach: a little nick or sanding, followed by a soak.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — To get to the “Sinners” exhibit on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour, you have to navigate past the backlot’s iconic water tower, cross through the New York Street and then skirt city hall and the fountain from the opening credits of “Friends.” Eventually, you wind up at Stage 48, home of the Central Perk Cafe, a gift shop selling all manner of “Friends” bric-a-brac and offering a smattering of knockoff furniture from Monica’s palatial apartment to enjoy.

Comparatively, the newly installed “Sinners” showcase, featuring costumes and a couple of props, is, to use a real estate agent’s euphemism, “cozy,” certainly smaller than Rachel’s closet. On the night of its opening, “Sinners” production designer Hannah Beachler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw are inside sitting on a sofa — not the sofa, but close enough. A few hours ago, they were celebrating with their fellow Oscar nominees at the academy’s annual luncheon.

“She’s a regular,” Arkapaw says, her arm around Beachler, who won an Oscar in 2019 for her work on “Black Panther.”

The two women and the rest of the “Sinners” team have been hobnobbing with Oscar and guild voters for months now and talking about their work on the film, which was released in April, for even longer. At the time of this “Sinners” event on the Warner Bros. lot, which included yet another screening of the movie for guild members, the Oscars were still more than a month away.

“I can believe it,” Beachler says. Adds Arkapaw: “Me too. I’m stressing about the stuff they’re having us doing. But I think Teyana Taylor said it best: ‘Don’t be complaining about answered prayers.’”

“Sinners” had a lot of prayers answered when Oscar nominations were announced last month — 16, to be precise.

Now the question is whether that record-breaking haul might be enough to catapult Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying American horror story to a best picture Oscar victory.

When it opened in September, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” immediately took the pole position in the best picture race, and it remains the front-runner. But all those “Sinners” Oscar nominations do complicate things. Put it this way: When you submit your movie in 16 different categories and hit in each and every one of them, you have a film boasting broad support across a dozen voting branches. That’s significant.

And if you’re a voter and you weren’t necessarily a fan of the film — or had put off watching it because the horror genre gives you pause — the nominations total does something else. It prompts you to take stock. What is everyone else seeing? Maybe you watch “Sinners” again. Maybe you finally clear the deck and press play for the first time. Perhaps you see that it’s just as much a movie of the moment as “One Battle,” what with the unapologetic, overt racism coming from the White House.

So if you’re on the fence and you do reconsider “Sinners,” maybe it’s not a complete reversal. But it might be enough for you to put the movie higher on your ranked ballot when you vote for best picture.

As you may know, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a preferential ballot for the best picture category and only the best picture category. When the academy’s 10,136 voting members mark their ballots this year, they cast a single vote in 23 of the 24 Oscar categories. The nominee with the most votes wins.

For best picture, though, members are instructed to rank the 10 nominated movies. The system, in place since the academy expanded the best picture field from five to 10 nominees in 2009, is designed to reflect the wishes of the greatest number of voters. This means that the winner is sometimes not the movie that is most passionately loved but the picture that is most generally liked — or, if you’re a glass-half-empty kind of person, the picture that is least disliked.

The process works like this: Once voting ends, PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants sort the best picture ballots and place them in stacks based on members’ No. 1 votes. They then eliminate the movie with the fewest first-place votes, giving those votes to each ballot’s second-ranked film. The process continues — smallest stacks eliminated, votes redistributed to the next choice down — until one movie has more than 50% of the vote.

The math to “Sinners” winning best picture necessitates it being the No. 1, 2 or 3 choice on more ballots than “One Battle After Another.” And that plays into what a couple of awards consultants told me about the psychological effect the movie’s record-breaking 16 nominations might have on voters when they rank the nominated movies.

“Maybe it’s not your favorite, but you still rank it high because of that overwhelming level of respect,” says one rival campaigner. “Who knows if the math adds up. But at this point in the season, you’re looking for any advantage you can find.”

A test of that math will come Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards, a ceremony that uses the same preferential ballot system to determine its best picture. The PGA winner more often than not repeats at the Oscars, though in the last decade there have been two notable exceptions — “Moonlight” besting PGA winner “La La Land” in 2017 and, three years later, “Parasite” taking the Oscar over “1917.”

Should “Sinners” prevail at the PGA and then the next night go on to win the cast prize at the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards), then the race will be dramatically recast. Both ceremonies take place in the middle of the window of final voting for the Oscars, which runs Feb. 26 through March 5.

“It’s a miracle that we were all nominated,” Beachler says. “That’s rare for everyone to get that recognition.”

For a film with a hero named Preacher Boy, one last miracle certainly isn’t out of the question. And if the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that you underestimate “Sinners” at your peril.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By J.M. HIRSCH, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — For nearly 10 years running, Lesley VanNess never missed the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, a beachfront bacchanal of celebrities, booze and bites that tens of thousands of attendees pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to join.

It was about access, the chance to nosh and gab with the likes of Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay, people she otherwise could experience only via the hands-in-pans purview of the Food Network.

“I’d get the Food Network Magazine and there would be advertisements for it. I’m like, ‘0h my god! You could go to that? Go to these great events and meet these celebrity chefs?’,” said VanNess, a 44-year-old former restaurant owner from Iowa. “I’m in!”

That was during the food festival heyday, a decade-long stretch starting around 2010 when copycat events popped up everywhere, creating a circuit-like scene for A-list chefs (and ample wannabes).

Then came social media, a force that melted barriers between fans and food celebs. People like VanNess realized that instead of crowding into football field-size tents to chance a chat with Flay, they could just DM him.

Or better yet, they could tune in to online #instafood chatter to perhaps discover the next Ray or Flay, a whole new level of social cred unlocked.

VanNess hasn’t been back to South Beach since at least 2020. “I’d rather see them on social media or go to their restaurant,” she said.

What chefs and foodies want

Last weekend, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival turned 25, cementing it as one of the elders of the festival scene, along with its sister event, the New York City Wine & Food Festival, and the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado. By all accounts, all three are going strong. But many smaller festivals have disappeared, victims of the pandemic, slumping ticket sales, soaring food and labor costs, and chef disinterest.

So, are food festivals still relevant?

“South Beach and New York, they fill a niche and I can see them going on forever. But food events and food festivals are going in a whole other direction,” said Mike Thelin, one of the founders of the now shuttered Oregon festival Feast Portland.

Festivals’ success long hinged on the need of chefs, wineries, mixologists, food producers, and what only now are known as food influencers to reach a wider audience. In 2026, that’s an antiquated notion.

“In 2010, they wanted to get on the map,” Thelin said. “They don’t need that anymore.”

Seeking that local connection

That doesn’t mean festivals are dead. There’s a recalibration happening, he explained. What many call “white tent affairs,” a not-so-subtle nod to South Beach’s events that stretch along the sands of the Atlantic, are fading.

“If I’m going to a certain region, I want to know what makes that region special,” Thelin said. “I don’t want to go into a giant white tent that’s devoid of geography and drink a bunch of wines from California if I’m in Washington or Tennessee.”

Taking their place? A host of small, hyper-focused events grounded in people and place. Events like AAPI Food & Wine, a 3-year-old Oregon and New York City-based festival that highlights the work of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“The foodie scene has changed so much,” said Lois Cho, one of the founders of that event, which draws about 1,000 attendees a year. “People didn’t realize wine and black bean noodles and izakaya and all these different Thai dishes — they had no idea they paired. Creating a different narrative and community where you can connect with people, those are the types of events we’ll see now.”

Social media, she said, unlocked so many overlooked voices.

“And a lot of people haven’t caught on because it’s been a lot of cookie-cutter events for the last 20 years,” she said.

It’s been a similar story for the Southbound Food Festival, which celebrates the culinary scene of Birmingham, Alabama. Started in 2022 and stretching over a week every fall, the event pulls support not just from chefs, but also the region’s art and music scenes.

“There’s less appeal today with these TV chefs. Great chefs are everywhere,” said Nancy Hopkins, one of the event’s founders. “People come to celebrate and uplift Birmingham.”

The OG festivals still draw crowds

Still, as Thelin said, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and it’s New York sibling aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, white tents, Food Network faces and all. Tickets to nearly all of South Beach’s 110 events, which featured 500-plus chefs and food personalities, sold out this year. In its quarter century, the festival has raised more than $45 million for the Florida International University Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Lee Schrager, the force behind the two festivals, said the South Beach blueprint remains relevant today.

“There’s something very different about DM’ing Bobby Flay than going to an intimate dinner at a table of 10 that he’s doing that’s sold out in three days,” Schrager said. “Social media has made everyone available, but can you touch and feel it?”

The first South Beach event, attended by only 10 chefs, was little more than a wine tasting. This year, more than 30,000 people attended. Martha Stewart hosted a luncheon at Joe’s Stone Crab, Italian celebrity butcher Dario Cecchini tossed slabs of beef into an eager dinner crowd, and Ray reprised her Burger Bash, where everything from Kool-Aid pickles to foie gras adorned smashed wagyu patties on potato buns.

Schrager acknowledged that most smaller festivals can’t operate the way his do, including hosting events he knows will sell tickets even if they ultimately lose money. He said he sold $7 million in tickets this year and brought in $6 million in sponsorships — and netted just a little over $1 million.

“It’s a good number in the festival world, but it’s not a great return if you’re running a profit business,” he said.

Ray, who has participated in nearly every South Beach and New York festival, continues to show up. It’s about loyalty to Schrager, who took her seriously when much of the food world didn’t. But it’s also about in-person access to fans.

“I love talking to people, being with people, having people climb all over you, hang on you, give you a compliment,” she said. “I love being in the real-life experience.”

J.M. Hirsch is a food and travel journalist, and the former food editor for The Associated Press.

What are the worst tourist traps in the world? What attractions live up to the hype?

Stasher, a company that hooks travelers up with temporary luggage storage, weighs in with its blog post, “World’s Best and Worst Tourist Attractions, Ranked.” These rankings were calculated by considering five factors: online ratings, TikTok likes, distance from an airport, the country’s safety and quality of local lodging.

Ergo, Stasher has determined the worst tourist attraction in existence is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “Located 38.1 km from the LAX airport, this sidewalk of celebrity stars had the lowest Google rating and safety score,” it writes. Other sites that supposedly suck in terms of a visitor experience include Disneyland Paris and the Dead Sea, dinged for “accessibility challenges” and “regional instability.”

Conversely, places that scored high include Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here are the first five from each list; check out the full post for more.

Stasher’s best and worst tourist attractions in the world

Worst:

1 Hollywood Walk of Fame, L.A.

2 The Dead Sea

3 The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

4 Great Wall of China

5 Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

Best:

1 Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

2 Colosseum, Rome

3 Eiffel Tower, Paris

4 Milford Sound, New Zealand

5 Walt Disney World, Florida

Source: stasher.com/blog/worlds-best-and-worst-tourist-attractions-ranked

As filmmaker Baz Luhrmann was deep into his work on “Elvis,” his 2022 biopic of Elvis Presley, an idea struck him: What if he wove real-life footage of Presley into concert scenes of actor Austin Butler as Elvis?

He reached out to his Elvis experts and quickly heard back.

“This wonderful man called,” Luhrmann says on a recent video call from the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. “Ernst [Mikael Jorgensen] is like the scientist of all things Elvis, and he says, ‘I think there are these lost reels.’”

Jorgensen told him that they might not be easy to get, if they’re even gettable at all, Luhrmann says.

“Unfortunately, they’re in the salt mines in Kansas where they keep all the negatives of everything,” he says of the underground vault in Kansas where many Hollywood studios store their original negatives and master copies.

It’s too expensive to go down, Jorgensen told Luhrmann. But maybe you can get to them, he added.

“I think, ‘Well, maybe I can use the footage in the showroom [scenes in Las Vegas],” Luhrmann continues. “Like to sort of deal with budget.

“We met, and it cost a lot to get down there,” he says. “About $100,000 just to go down and look.”

But what he found there was priceless: 65 boxes of never-before-seen footage from the concert documentaries “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is,” shot in 35mm anamorphic film at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1970, and “Elvis on Tour,” filmed at arena shows in New York, Virginia, Florida and Texas in 1972.

Angie Marchese, vice president of archives and exhibits at Graceland, came up with a few more boxes of unseen footage, a stash of Super 8 movies of Elvis that included rare footage of Elvis with his wife, Priscilla Presley, and only child, Lisa Marie Presley.

Now, Luhrmann had 59 hours of extremely rare footage and the irresistible opportunity to do much more than he’d initially considered.

“And then we find this half hour of audio of Elvis just talking about his life,” Luhrmann says of the epiphany that he and longtime editor Jonathan Redmond experienced as they worked through the archival negatives. “I said, ‘This is it. We’ve got to let Elvis just tell his own story.’

“Because Elvis stuff is always someone telling you about it,” he continues. “That was the light bulb moment. It was that and then all the song choices that help tell the story, you know?”

“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” opened in IMAX theaters on Friday, Feb. 20, and opens in movie theaters everywhere on Friday, Feb. 27.

It’s a remarkable look at Elvis, the untouchable icon restored to his flesh-and-blood humanity through a forgotten trove of film footage that had sat for decades in a vault hundreds of feet below the Kansas plains.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Luhrmann talks about why he wants everyone to see it on the biggest screen possible, what it took to restore the film and audio, how he fell for Elvis as a boy growing up in Australia, and more.

Q: So you must be a busy guy this week.

A: I’m good, man. It’s like “EPiC” weekend, so you do everything you can. By the end, you just hope enough people come to see the man on the big screen.

Q: I saw it earlier this week in IMAX, and it’s so impressive. People are going to come see this.

A: I hope so. I love the fact that you saw it in IMAX. I’m really glad you took the time because I just think the nature of the subject is there’s no screen big enough for Elvis, you know?

Q: So tell me how you started to explore all those boxes of film.

A: Well, we bring the stuff back to Warner’s, and it smells so strongly of vinegar, which means it’s falling apart. And some is missing, and some is mislabeled, and there’s no sound. So the first thing we do is I convince Warner’s to scan it because it’s going to disappear. Then we spent two years finding mag track [magnetic tape used to sync the audio track to the film images]

We were able to get the mag track, which gave us voices and the band. But a lot of the micing on the orchestra, the Sweets [backing vocalists the Sweet Inspirations], and the gospel singers was a bit up and down.

We wanted to do it in five months. It took two years to sync the sound with the pictures.

Q: Your new film – is that all stuff that’s never been seen before? Or does it include material from the original concert films?

A: Yeah, that’s a good question. There will be some bits that are in the previous doc, but there’s a lot in there where people think, “Oh, I’ve seen that before.” And they might have seen that, but they wouldn’t have seen that camera or that take or that night. [Eleven cameras simultaneously shot performances for the 1972 movie.]

And if you notice, his costume changes all the time, and we didn’t care about that. We didn’t care that in one song we got six versions. The third thing is they would have seen online and on YouTube lots of bootleg. There’s a huge black market in stolen stuff. So even with the sound, sometimes we had deal with gangsters in carparks to get a little bit of missing sound.

There are a few actual bits where we’ve gone, “Ah, that’s what we need to join that to those other two shots [by inserting a piece from the ’70s films between newly discovered footage]. It’s very small. I don’t know what the percentage is.

Q: Watching the movie, I was struck by how real and how human he seemed here.

A: That’s it, that’s it. Like he says in the film, there’s the image, and there’s the man. When you see as much material as I have, you really realize that there’s the humor and the goofiness, too. I think that’s him disarming everyone so they get past the icon and they see the man.

Q: What else struck you as you worked through the footage?

A: Some things really jumped out. There’s some things we couldn’t use because it just didn’t have the focus of the story. You realize he just kind of hung with people, and he’s very human, very empathetic, very polite. And he’s always goofing, because I think he’s just damn shy, and he’s trying to disarm everyone.

It’s like Whitney Houston said. Her mom [Cissy Houston] was in the original Sweets the year before. And she meets Elvis, she was probably 10 or something. She said he walked in the room with a fur coat on, and it wasn’t like, “Hello, Mr. Elvis.” She said, you just stare. You freeze and stare. Because of the way he looks, you know? So there was a lot of that

It’s happening quite a bit actually now. People not into Elvis at all, they know the caricature. But they come out of this film, they go, “Who is this guy? I love this guy!” Because he’s human.

Q: Tell me how the unused audio of Elvis talking about his life was recorded.

A: In the tour, there’s a little bit you see, and he looks very tired. He’s talking about, “Well, I like all kinds of music,” and he talks about gospel, and he says, “Look, I’m too tired. I’ll do it in the morning.”

And when he comes back, he says, “Guys, I can’t be on camera. I’ll just talk.” So they never used the talking bit. That’s where he goes, “I got a whipping from my mother,” and that same bit is where he goes, “I was very shy, you know.” About girls liking him after he started singing.

Q: What needed to be fixed or restored in the film and the audio? And how did you go about it?

A: Yeah, one thing I want to be really clear about: there’s not a frame of AI. Some people said, ‘Oh, it’s AI.” No, no, no. There’s no AI, and there’s no visual effects. But [filmmaker] Peter Jackson, the magician, and his wonderful team at Park Road, we gave them the anamorphic.

I don’t know if you know about anamorphic 35mm, but it’s squashed. And when you stretch it, you just sort of head towards a possible 70mm. You get a lot more out of it. What [Jackson] does is, he’s able to go frame by frame and take out aberrations and really help the grain. There’s 8mm footage in that’s the size of two buildings, and it still holds up.

He’s just brilliant at that. Peter, I mean, he’s a savior of many, many things. He did it with the Beatles [the docuseries “Get Back”]. Love that piece.

And with the sound, some of it we had to do remixes, some we take three [versions of] songs and make new works because we couldn’t just do everything straight off the stage. A lot of it is. I mean, “Suspicious Minds” is just remixed.

Q: The editing is such a terrific part of storytelling. How did you and Jonathan go about that?

A: The process was once we said let him tell the story, we worked out parts. Like, “OK, now he’s going to talk about his Hollywood years, now he’s going to talk about relationships, now he’s going to talk about his feelings.”

You know, when he was asked about politics, he says, “Well, I’m just an entertainer.” They seldom play the second clip where he’s asked, “Should other people speak about their politics?” and he says, “Sure.” Then we put “In The Ghetto” and that other lovely song [“Walk a Mile in My Shoes”] where he goes “There are people on reservations and in ghettos and there but for the grace of God go you.” It’s a very empathetic song.

Then take the cut of “Poke Salad Annie,” which I think is brilliant. Jonathan is a brilliant cutter, anyway. He started with U2 when he was a kid, but he’s worked with me for years, and we make these, like, tone poems. Poetry, more than linear. The vibes of the movie. But it had to be guided by Elvis’s story, and the way we did it was by this question: What would Elvis have done?

Q: You don’t use the usual documentary talking heads – were there models for that for you?

A: The only one I can think of that I actually really enjoyed was that documentary [“Listen to Me Marlon”] where they found all these tapes that Brando did. I was a big Brando fan, and at one stage, Marlon Brando was maybe going to be in “Romeo + Juliet,” believe it or not. I have some very treasured letters from Marlon Brando.

I just loved the way you heard Marlon just talking [in the documentary]. It made you fall in love with Marlon all over again, just the way he illuminated things. [He does a quite good impression of Brando talking about Cary Grant.] I love that stuff. I just think you can’t beat it having someone actually tell their story.

Q: What was it like when you showed “EPiC” to Priscilla and Riley?

A: Actually, Priscilla’s only seeing it for the first time next week, and Riley’s about to see it, too. But I want to explain something. First of all, they were so supportive during the making of the [“Elvis” biopic]. But since then, it was a great sadness of what was a beautiful journey. [Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley’s daughter with Elvis, and Riley Keough’s mother, died in January 2023.]

Right in this building, after the Golden Globes, I remember Lisa Marie saying, “Can you help me down to the car?” And of course, she was gone a few days later. [“EPiC”] is about Elvis, but for Riley, it’s about mom, and for Priscilla, it’s about her daughter. There’s some really poignant unseen 8mm in there that no one’s ever seen of Lisa Marie as a little baby, you know?

I think they need to see it in their own time. Just anywhere that suits them. I mean, I love them, so anytime, anywhere they need it, I’ll make it happen.

Q: As a boy growing up in Australia, how’d you first encounter Elvis and become such a fan?

A: We lived in a very isolated little country town. We had a gas station on the highway through it, and we had a farm. Dad was super industrious. He was in the Vietnam War. So we had artists living with us, and we did everything from command training to ballroom dancing to learning how to shoot film and process photography.

At a certain point, we [owned] the local cinema, and there were Elvis matinees every Sunday. So that was my intro, and I just thought he was the coolest guy in the world, you know? I probably think differently about “Easy Come, Easy Go” now, but then I thought, “Wow, look at that guy in that black sweater.” I wanted to be him.

Then he loomed large, but in life, I ran away and grew and [explored] opera and Bowie and all sorts of different musical forms. He was there, but not in the same way. I’m a great admirer, as I was making films, of “Amadeus,” and a lot of people wanted me to do different musical bios.

Yes, you learn about a lot about Mozart [in “Amadeus”], but it’s really about jealousy then. And I thought, well, if you want to make “Amadeus” for America, it’s Elvis because of this relationship between the Colonel [Tom Parker] and Elvis.

One is the great salesman, promoter, and the other sort of what [the Colonel] thought was a carnival act but turned out to be sort of Orpheus. Sort of Greek, mythical, very sensitive and gifted. A singer, mover, creator. Remember, Elvis didn’t have a choreographer; Elvis didn’t have a stylist.

Q: He just made that up on his own. You see him playing around and seeing what works in “EPiC.”

A: Well, as he says, “I just do what I feel.” And that’s kind of interesting, because that kept the band always having to watch him, and they never knew what he was going to do. Neither did the audience, and that makes it really spontaneous.

By Miriam Fauzia, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — While Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love, for the 250 million roses and other floral bouquets produced for the holiday, it means a slow death.

That countdown is driven in part by ethylene, a natural plant hormone that speeds up aging in cut flowers. Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington are testing new ways to blunt ethylene’s effects, with the goal of helping bouquets and fresh produce last longer. Here’s what to know.

What is ethylene?

Plants produce ethylene — an odorless, colorless gas — as they age, when damaged and in response to shifts in temperature, sunlight and other environmental stressors.

“Ethylene plays a vital role in nature, from fruit ripening to leaf drop to seed germination,” Rasika Dias, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UT Arlington leading the research, said in a news release. “For instance, fruits such as bananas, avocados and pears ripen because of ethylene. This ripening process transforms starch into sugars, which explains why ripe fruit tastes sweet.”

Because ethylene can drift through the air, it can affect nearby plants, which is why a ripe banana can speed the ripening of other fruit. Depending on how much ethylene is circulating, the gas can visibly age a plant, triggering the yellowing and dropping of leaves, and shortening how long a bouquet can last, according to the American Floral Endowment.

Shipping and storage can amplify those aging effects. Stress and mechanical damage can spur plants to release more ethylene, hastening deterioration unless growers and distributors intervene with anti-ethylene treatments.

Switching off ethylene

To slow ethylene’s effects, floral and produce industries often use 1-methylcyclopropene, or 1-MCP, a chemical discovered in the mid-1990s. It works like an ethylene decoy, attaching to the same places in plant cells that ethylene normally would. But unlike the gas, 1-MCP doesn’t trigger ripening or aging. Instead, it blocks ethylene’s signal from getting through, slowing a plant’s wilting or a fruit’s ripening.

But using 1-MCP has drawbacks. The chemical is highly reactive, can be tricky to handle and typically must be applied in sealed or enclosed spaces to work effectively, according to the American Floral Endowment. And because its effects can last for an extended period, 1-MCP may prevent some fruits from ripening.

With support from the American Floral Endowment and the United States Department of Agriculture, Dias and his lab at UT Arlington are testing alternatives to 1-MCP that aren’t volatile. Some of the most promising candidates include compounds built around metals such as copper. To see whether they slow the wilting process, the researchers take about 30 freshly cut flowers and divide them into three groups: untreated, treated with existing commercial products and treated with the new compounds.

“You monitor how long each group lasts — how fast petals drop, how quickly they wilt,” Dias said in the news release. “If the treated flowers last significantly longer than the untreated ones, that compound shows promise.”

In addition to helping with flowers, Dias hopes the research will reduce food waste. In 2019, 66.2 million tons of wasted food were generated in the food retail, food service and residential sectors, with about 60% ending up in landfills; another 40.1 million tons came from food and beverage manufacturing and processing, according to a 2019 report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Fruits and vegetables are thrown away when they over-ripen — bananas turn brown, tomatoes become too soft and people won’t buy them,” Dias said. “This is a major issue during shipping, since most food travels long distances. Without treatment, much of it deteriorates before reaching stores. That’s a huge economic and food-security problem.”

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2026 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Liquidity as affection and trash as a symbol of enduring love. From bouquets fashioned from dollar bills to heart-shaped gifts forged from recycled scrap metal, romance in Zimbabwe is taking strikingly inventive forms, reflecting life in an economy where cash reigns supreme and sustainability gains new social value.

You can’t buy love, the saying goes. But from florists in traditional markets to social media sellers angling for attention on TikTok, dollar bills rolled and pinned together to resemble a floral bouquet are increasingly rivaling fresh flowers as Valentine Day’s most coveted tokens of appreciation in the southern African country.

“Please God, make my lover see this,” commented one TikTok user under a video advertising glittering cash-and-flower arrangements. “May this bouquet locate me in Jesus name, amen,” wrote another.

Cash as courtship

At a decades-old flower market in the capital, Harare, Tongai Mufandaedza, a florist, patiently assembled one such “money bouquet.” Using adhesive and bamboo sticks, he folded crisp $50 notes into decorative cone shapes, weaving them with stems of white roses.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, he expects business to surge.

“The market has improved because of the money bouquets,” said Mufandaedza, who has worked at the country’s biggest flower market for three decades.

“On Valentine’s Day, we are going to have more, more, more customers, because this is something which is trending. Everyone wants to impress,” he said, then patched the arrangement in bright red wrapping and ribbons.

Among those browsing the market was Kimberleigh Kawadza. Her preference was clear.

“The person who came up with the trend, I just need to give them a hands up. They did a good job,” said the 23-year-old. “It’s a way of appreciating my partner, it’s a 100 for me, it’s a 100.”

Practical romance

While Generation Z is driving the craze, Mufandaedza said demand is spreading across generations. Some parents, he added, are even buying money bouquets for their daughters “so that they don’t fall into peer pressure and get tempted to go for sugar daddies who can lure them with such gifts.”

Prices vary widely. Smaller bouquets may contain as little as $10, while larger arrangements can run into the thousands. In some cases, they are even cheaper than traditional floral gifts.

A bouquet of dollar notes with a value of $10 costs $25, while a bouquet of 10 good-grade red roses costs between $35 and $40, he said. Many ask “where is the money?” if Mufandaedza delivers a bouquet of flowers without a cash design, he said.

Unlike traditional floral gifts, the appeal of money bouquets is as practical as it is romantic for Zimbabwe’s economic realities, where liquidity often carries more immediate value than luxury.

“People still love flowers, but when they see the notes on top, the love feels hotter and the gesture even more meaningful. Survival matters more in these difficult times and money plays a bigger role,” he said.

The U.S. dollar has dominated transactions since hyperinflation forced authorities to abandon the local currency in 2009. Although Zimbabwe has since reintroduced its own currency, the dollar remains legal and dominant.

With crisp notes scarce, worn and tattered U.S. bills, sometimes jokingly referred to as “war veterans,” are hardly suitable for decorative bouquets, spawning spin-off businesses of enterprising traders who supply clean replacement notes at a commission.

Zimbabwe isn’t alone in flirting with the fusion of cash and courtship. Money bouquets have also surged in popularity elsewhere in Africa, including Kenya, one of the world’s largest flower exporters.

Before Valentine’s Day, Kenya’s central bank warned of stiff penalties of up to seven years in prison for folding, stapling or gluing banknotes into bouquets, arguing that damaged currency disrupts cash-handling systems and violates laws against defacing money. The directive sparked lively debate online, with critics accusing regulators of overreach.

Love from scrap

Back in Zimbabwe, no such restrictions exist. But for some, love is finding expression not just through cash, but through trash recycled into keepsakes.

At an upscale shopping center in Harare, aluminium heart-shaped key rings, necklaces, platters and wine holders crafted from reclaimed scrap were lined up next to chocolates and gift boxes in Simpli Simbi, a decor and gift shop. “Simbi” means metal in the local Shona language.

“We are taking something that was unloved before, polishing it up and making it beautiful again towards a gift to someone that they can treasure forever,” said Stephanie Charlton, founder of the shop.

Charlton said that her customer base, once dominated by tourists and diaspora Zimbabweans, is increasingly local because of rising environmental awareness.

In an industrial area nearby, her foundry was stacked with discarded car radiators, rims and scrap metal collected from roadsides and landfills, before being melted in an open furnace and transformed into handmade gifts.

“Women love chocolates and flowers, but they are here today, gone tomorrow,” said Charlton, a former horticulture exporter who now employs 20 people.

“This is something that we have collected that would be filling up a landfill. But we have made it into something beautiful that you can give to (your valentine), show them that you treasure them. There is a meaning behind it, there is a story to be told with each piece.”

Associated Press writer Evelyne Musambi contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

For some, there’s nothing more romantic than cozying up with a book on Valentine’s Day. Or maybe you’re going out and need something to read while you and your date wait for your table to open up when out for a fabulous dinner to celebrate the holiday. (It’s not unprecedented: Some of us always carry a book.)

So read on for romance.

“After Hours at Dooryard Books” by Cat Sebastian

In this novel set in a radical Greenwich Village bookstore during the tumult of the late-’60s, Patrick, a bookseller, takes in Nathaniel, a mysterious stranger who seems to fit in with the shop’s anti-establishment regulars.

“As Many Souls as Stars” by Natasha Siegel

A historical fantasy romance about the struggle between light and dark, this novel tells the story of two women entwined by a terrible bargain binding them across the passing centuries.

SEE ALSO: Southern California romance bookstores do not want AI for Valentine’s Day

“Carnival Fantástico” by Angela Montoya

A fortune-teller in a traveling carnival troupe teams up with a handsome military deserter – plus, he’s her ex! – investigating his family’s corruption in hopes that together they can solve their problems in this magical romantasy.

“Daddy Issues” by Kate Goldbeck

A debt-ridden, twentysomething PhD hopeful is living with her mother and working a dead-end job, hoping to find a way out, when a single father moves in next door with his 9-year-old daughter.

“The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow,

Harrow, known for “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” and “The Once and Future Witches,” delivers the goods again with a novel involving time travel, a formidable female knight and a soldier turned historian with a mission.

“Just for the Cameras” by Meghan Quinn

In this novel set in the Bay Area, a professional football player and a sexy zookeeper agree to engage in a fake public romance – there are reasons! – but what happens when the feelings start to seem real?

“Julia Song is Undateable” by Susan Lee

The title character is a success as the CEO of a cosmetics company, but a disaster at romance. So in an effort to appease her Korean grandmother, who just wants her to be happy (and married!), Julia Song hires a dating coach and …

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

“The Re-Do List” by Denise Williams

In the wake of a painful breakup, a young woman agrees to dog-sit for her brother during his military deployment; she gets help from her brother’s handsome friend, who’s been given one order: Stay away from my little sister!

“Son of the Morning” by Akwaeke Emezi

In this paranormal romance set in the South, a young woman raised by a group of powerful Black women encounters what may be a literal boyfriend from hell in a tale of secrets, artifacts and powerful clashes between heaven, earth and beyond.

By Kyle Stock, Bloomberg News

Despite a barren start to Colorado’s ski season, Winter Park Resort opened on Halloween and served up holiday powder.

The ski area’s secret is a contraption a few miles upwind of the chairlifts that looks like a meat smoker strapped to the top of a ladder. When weather conditions are just right, a Winter Park contractor fires up the machine, burning a fine dust of silver iodide into the sky — a process known as cloud seeding. Ideally, the particles disappear into a cloud that is cold enough and wet enough to produce snow, but may need a nudge. The silver iodide becomes the nuclei for water droplets, like iron filings to a magnet. Those droplets freeze and fall from the sky as snowflakes, freshening up the slopes of the resort as it tries to lure the Gore-Tex-clad masses between Denver and larger, showier ski destinations further west.

Doug Laraby, who has helped run Winter Park for nearly four decades, says the resort leaned heavily on its cloud seeding equipment over the Christmas holiday, sprinkling the skies as fresh powder fell days before the critical New Years weekend. At the moment, Winter Park has more snow than Breckenridge, Keystone and a host of bigger resorts nearby.

“For us,” Laraby explains, “that was a million-dollar storm.”

Resorts are increasingly seeking solutions to freshen up the brown slopes spanning the American West this winter, even as the East Coast grapples with back-to-back storms. Last month, Vail Resorts Inc. — which owns nearly 50 resorts across the U.S. and Canada — said it would miss revenue projections due to subpar snowfall this season. The dramatic lack of precipitation in the Rockies “limited our ability to open terrain” and, in turn, crimped spending by both locals and destination guests, Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said in a statement.

In a battle to improve — or at least maintain — snowpack in the face of rising temperatures and drought, Winter Park, operated by Vail rival Alterra Mountain Co., is one of a growing number of groups in the American West doubling down on cloud seeding, from state governments and ski hills to utilities and watershed management agencies.

Desperate for water — ideally snow — they’re banking on the strategy to buoy the $6 billion U.S. ski industry, while keeping rivers and reservoirs at healthy levels come spring. Despite the promise, though, companies are still trying to amass data showing the technology can actually deliver appreciable amounts of powder. And scientists studying cloud seeding have cast doubt on just how effective it is.

Katja Friedrich, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Colorado, concedes that cloud seeding works in a lab. “But out there,” she says, gesturing to cirrus clouds sweeping over the Front Range outside of her office, “it’s a totally different business.”

Storms are volatile, complex and unforgiving places to gather data. “The application is so far ahead of what the science actually shows,” Friedrich explains. “Usually, it’s the other way around.”

The idea of cloud seeding dates back to the 19th century, and it got an unexpected boost thanks to research at General Electric in the wake of World War II. DRI, a nonprofit research institute in Nevada, started cloud seeding in the 1960s. Putting particles in clouds to create precipitation gained traction in recent years as waves of drought hit the U.S., tallying $14 billion in damages in 2023 alone.

DRI now runs cloud-seeding operations all over the West, including the program at Winter Park. In 2023, the Winter Park generators burned for the equivalent of five straight days, planting an estimated 24 inches of powder on the slopes that wouldn’t have been there otherwise, according to DRI. That equates to 13% of what would have fallen naturally.

“The main driver [for our clients] is water resources,” says Frank McDonough, a DRI research scientist. But, he notes, “we can help the entire mountain economy.”

Private companies are also playing a growing role, most notably Rainmaker Technology Corp., a startup that is now the lead cloud seeding contractor for Utah, which has built one of the most aggressive programs in the American West. From a warehouse in Salt Lake City, founder Augustus Doricko, a 25-year-old with a resplendent mullet that belies his Connecticut childhood, manages a crew of 120, mostly young people working to make it snow on mountains they might otherwise be climbing or skiing.

When the weather looks right, Rainmaker crews pile into 12 pickups, each loaded with two drones, and convoy up the canyons of the Wasatch Mountains. They send half of the drones whirring into the soup of clouds and spray silver iodide for about an hour. When the machines come down to recharge, the team launches the second wave. The cycle is repeated until the clouds move on or get too warm.

Doricko says his company is creating a fresh supply of water with no ecological impact; silver iodide is inorganic and even if ingested, won’t dissolve in the human body.

This year, the state of Utah will pay Rainmaker $7.5 million, part of a cloud seeding blitz that began three years ago. With the Great Salt Lake at historic low levels, Utah lawmakers approved a tenfold increase in funding, committing at least $5 million a year to operations and another $12 million to upgrade and expand a fleet of almost 200 cloud seeding machines on the ground.

Rainmaker is charged with generating enough snow to help partially refill the lake. The company also has a contract with Snowbird Resort, located to the east of Salt Lake City, and much of its seeding will happen near Powder Mountain and Snowbasin resorts, located further north, although neither ski area is a client.

“Anything we can do to increase water levels is going to be well worth the funding,” says Jonathan Jennings, a meteorologist with the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

The list of stakeholders clamoring for more water in the American West is long, ranging from ski resorts to wildfire fighters, reservoir managers to farmers.

“Every state in the West is either cloud seeding or thinking of cloud seeding,” says Friedrich, the University of Colorado researcher.

It’s also popular, in part, because it’s cheap. Jennings estimates that it costs about $30 to produce 325,000 gallons of water, or what experts call an acre-foot of water. Recycling or desalinating a similar amount would cost somewhere around $1,000. Snowmaking, meanwhile, is more expensive and uses more water than it produces.

When Doricko visits potential customers, be they utilities, ski resorts or state agencies, his sales script is simple: “It’s the only way you can bring new water supply to the Rocky Mountain West.”

More often than not these days, the pitch lands. Idaho has also hired Rainmaker this winter, eager to fill its reservoirs and keep farmers happy. All told, the company has about 100 drones flying across Western skies.

In Colorado, where arid conditions have exacerbated wildfires, officials are curious about the capabilities of Rainmaker’s drones while waiting to see this winter’s snow tallies from Utah. In the meantime, they’re working to replace decades-old, ground-based seeding machines with ones that can be switched on remotely. Without the need of a human to light the burner, the new units can be tucked into more remote places and at higher elevations that are colder for longer, improving the odds for snow.

“We feel comfortable saying we can get an additional eight to 12% of precipitation per storm,” says Andrew Rickert, a weather modification program manager with the Colorado Water Conservation Board. “And if we have a great winter in Colorado, there are 30 to 35 storms we can seed.”

Friedrich isn’t so sure about that estimate, despite being regarded as a bit of a rockstar in the cloud seeding field. In 2017, her research team zig-zagged a plane rigged with seed flares through a cloud in Wyoming that wasn’t producing snow. Sure enough, snow fell in the same pattern as the flight, results that fueled much of the recent seeding boom.

However, Friedrich points out, there wasn’t that much snow. And she notes that much remains unknown, like how wind affects the amount of silver iodide that gets into a cloud, and whether the particles trigger much precipitation beyond what would occur naturally.

“I understand why people are buying it, because they’re so desperate,” she says. “But if you ask me, there’s no scientific proof” that it produces a meaningful amount of water. Friedrich is working on a new study to try to figure out how effective ground-based cloud seeding can be and the best operating conditions.

Cloud seeding has also faced pushback from conspiracy theorists who say it works too well. Despite no evidence, Rainmaker was inaccurately implicated in last summer’s deadly Texas floods, and bills to ban weather modification have been filed in dozens of statehouses across the U.S., including those of Colorado and Utah. Former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also introduced a federal cloud-seeding ban in Congress in the wake of last July’s floods.

Doricko, at Rainmaker, has been working to convince lawmakers that cloud seeding does no harm and, on the other front, win over skeptical scientists like Freidrich. Rainmaker spent much of the spring and summer building its own radar system and deploying a layer of on-the-ground weather stations to measure results. It’s also working with independent researchers to provided peer-reviewed validation. As Friedrich did years ago, Rainmaker tries to spray silver-iodide in zig-zag patterns, so its results are more visible on radar — a so-called “seeding signature.”

Doricko acknowledges the challenge of teasing out the exact influence of manmade cloud seeding — which he jokingly refers to as “magic beans” — from natural precipitation. “Our fundamental research on now at Rainmaker is all about what kitchen sink of sensors can we throw at this problem to actually validate” our work, he says.

Vail abandoned its cloud seeding program in 2020, shifting its resources to invest heavily in machines that use water to spray artificial snow. The newest snow guns monitor weather in real time and can be programmed remotely.

“This technology means that Vail can make the most of every moment that conditions allow for snowmaking,” says spokeswoman Michelle Dallal. Still, the resort is feeling the pinch of an abnormally dry winter.

State officials are trying to get Vail back on board. Cloud seeding, they argue, can be cheaper than snowmaking, both in terms of cost and carbon, and it adds water to the ecosystem, rather than taking a share of it away. The state is also trying to get other ski areas to buy in: This year, Colorado positioned a ground system to seed clouds on the slopes of Aspen, in hopes that the resort will help fund future programs.

Meanwhile, Winter Park has emerged as one of the state’s biggest cloud seeding cheerleaders. Laraby says only 10% of the mountain is covered by snowmaking gear, and there are no plans to install more. And yet, when the storms rolled through the state Dec. 28, Winter Park says its cloud-seeding efforts conjured 12 inches of snow, triple what fell on Vail.

“If you ask me, it enhances the efficiency of these storms,” Laraby says. “I think it’s awesome.”

©2026 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ALICIA RANCILIO, Associated Press

Christie O’Sullivan of Trinity, Florida, has spent 21 Valentine’s Days with her husband, but her favorite celebration was one spent with a girlfriend before she got married.

They took the day off work, got massages, and went out for cocktails and a fancy dinner.

“For me, it was 10 out of 10. That whole day was intentional,” said O’Sullivan. She remembers it as empowering “on a day that’s usually filled with pressure to be in a relationship, or sadness because I wasn’t currently in one.”

Galentine’s Day became a pop culture phenomenon with a 2010 episode of the TV comedy “Parks and Recreation” that celebrated female friendships around Valentine’s Day. Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, gathered her gal pals on Feb. 13.

“What’s Galentine’s Day? Oh, it’s only the best day of the year,” said Knope.

Honoring female friendships can happen any day of the year, of course. Whether on Feb. 13 or another day, here are some ways to create a fun-filled experience:

Making it a party

Chela Pappaccioli of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has been hosting a Galentine’s Day bash at her home for the last three years. She has a bartender and a DJ hired, and this year invited 45 of her nearest and dearest. So far, she has 34 confirmations, and is assembling gift bags for her guests to take home. There are no men allowed “unless the bartender happens to be male.”

The event may be extravagant, but Pappaccioli says it’s worth it.

“It’s an escape to just be with your girls, be silly, do something fun and just focus on the friendships you’ve created and enjoying each other’s company,” she says.

Learning how to do something new

Liz Momblanco of Berkley, Michigan, who describes herself as a “serial hobbyist,” invites her friends to take classes like cookie and cake decorating, calligraphy and stained glass.

“I enjoy learning something new and having a shared experience,” said Momblanco, who has attended day retreats for women that offer activities like floral arranging, yoga or a cold plunge.

Marney Wolf, who runs the retreat company Luna Wolf, says providing an opportunity for art and creativity builds community.

“It bonds you, whether it’s the smallest thing or really deep. You watch these grown women turn into almost like a childlike kindergarten response like, ‘Oh my gosh! Good job! You’re so talented!’ That little lift is the easiest thing to do,” she said.

Filling a Valentine’s void

Wolf takes care to schedule Galentine’s-themed retreats near Valentine’s Day because some women don’t have someone to spend Feb. 14 with.

“I know it can be a really lonely time for people and I think some take it for granted,” she says.

Pappaccioli said a couple of divorced friends come to her party, and “even if you’re married it can be depressing because your husband may not be doing what you want or your boyfriend may not support you in the way you want,” she says.

“It’s nice to know that you don’t need that. You can still celebrate the holiday, but turn it around a little bit and celebrate the relationships you want to.”

Creating different kinds of bonds

Galentine’s Day get-togethers can forge new friendships. And spending quality time with a friend provides an opportunity to put the phone away, avoid distractions and build memories.

O’Sullivan is a social media strategist for businesses but appreciates that her bestie Valentine’s Day was without cellphones.

“We could be fully present — no photos, no texts, no nothing,” she says.

“So while that means there’s no actual record of that day occurring, it also means the details became a core memory without it.”

Some celebrate Galentine’s Day by just going out for coffee or playing cards. You might go with a group of women friends to a play or museum, or take a hike or a workout class.

Other ideas include thrift store shopping, country line dancing, roller skating, karaoke, junk journaling, and getting manicures and pedicures.

By MARIA SHERMAN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 68th annual Grammy Awards will take place Sunday with a dramatically different tone than last year.

The 2025 award show was completely reimagined and refocused to relief efforts following the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires. In 2026, focus has been placed once again on the music, where Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and more will go head-to-head.

Comedian Trevor Noah will host for a sixth and final year and history could be made when some of the biggest names in music gather. Here’s some key things to know ahead of Sunday’s show at the Crypto.com Arena.

How to watch the show and red carpet

The main show will air live on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 1.

The Grammys can also be watched through live TV streaming services that include CBS in their lineup, like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and FuboTV.

Paramount+ premium plan subscribers will be able to stream the Grammys live; Paramount+ essential subscribers will have on-demand access the next day.

The premiere ceremony will take place just ahead of the Grammys’ ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 p.m. Pacific at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It can be streamed at the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com.

The Associated Press will stream a four-hour red carpet show with interviews and fashion footage. It will be streamed on YouTube and APNews.com ahead of the Grammys on Sunday.

Who’s nominated at the 2025 Grammys

Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy Award nominations with nine. Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut follow with seven nominations each.

Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny, Leon Thomas and Serban Ghenea all boast six nominations. Andrew Watt, Clipse, Doechii, Sounwave, SZA, Turnstile and Tyler, the Creator have five each.

Who’s attending and performing at the Grammys

Doechii, Harry Styles, Carole King, Chappell Roan, Charli xcx, Jeff Goldblum, Karol G, Lainey Wilson, Marcello Hernández, Nikki Glaser, Q-Tip, Queen Latifah and Teyana Taylor will present at the 2026 Grammys.

Performers include Justin Bieber, Clipse, Pharrell Williams, Sabrina Carpenter Bruno Mars, Rosé, Tyler, the Creator, Lady Gaga and all eight of this year’s best new artist nominees: Leon Thomas, Olivia Dean, global girl group Katseye, The Marías, Addison Rae, sombr, Alex Warren and Lola Young.

Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson will take the stage for the in memoriam. Ms. Lauryn Hill will pay tribute to D’Angelo and Roberta Flack. Post Malone, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, Duff McKagan and Slash will honor Ozzy Osbourne.

By MARIA SHERMAN, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Sunday’s Grammys mark a return to normalcy after the 2025 show was altered to focus on Los Angeles-area wildfire relief efforts.

“I think we will see some history-making moments,” Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. told The Associated Press. “With artists being nominated in categories they haven’t been previously nominated in, and a new crop of talent coming through the system this year — I think we’re going to see some really exciting results.”

Here’s how to watch the 2026 Grammys, including how to stream and where you can see music’s biggest stars walking the red carpet.

How do I watch the Grammys?

The main show will air live from LA’s Crypto.com Arena on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. Paramount+ premium plan subscribers will be able to stream the telecast live, too. (Paramount+ essential subscribers will have on-demand access the next day.)

The Grammys can also be watched through live TV streaming services that include CBS in their lineup, like Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and FuboTV.

The Premiere Ceremony will take place ahead of the Grammys telecast, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern from the Peacock Theater. It can be streamed at the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com.

How can I watch the red carpet?

The Associated Press will stream a four-hour red carpet show with interviews and fashion footage. It will be streamed on YouTube and APNews.com.

Before I tell you why you should watch the new documentary about Mel Brooks, I will tell you that 25 years ago, he told me, “You may be right. I have done everything there is to do in show business. … Everything except to be tall. That’s the one thing I’ve never accomplished, being tall. But I’m looking forward to that.”

He was a relative youngster then, 74 years old, but at a very important point in his life. He was generally regarded as a comedic giant, and why not? He had spent his life making people laugh, first as a Catskills comic and then as part of a glittering writing team (along with Woody Allen and Neil Simon) for Sid Caesar’s pioneering TV programs “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour”; as the co-creator of “Get Smart”; as the 2000 Year Old Man on a series of best-selling comedy albums with pal Carl Reiner; as movie writer, director, producer and actor in such films as “The Producers,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles.”

But he had not had a critical or box-office hit since his 1977 Hitchcock spoof “High Anxiety.” And there he sat on a cold December day in 2000 in New York, taking a big risk, for many believed that the success or failure of the musical version of “The Producers” he was overseeing would provide the final sentence to his career.

Well, we all know what happened. “The Producers” would open in Chicago, move to Broadway and win a record 12 Tony Awards. The career carried on, and now here is Brooks, as charming, smart and, of course, funny as ever, as the centerpiece of a thoughtfully thrilling documentary now airing on HBO Max. “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!,” exclamation point more than justified.

It may be a bit long at almost four hours (in two episodes, now streaming), but it is impossible not to enjoy. Its length is forgivable since one can sense the excitement and affection of filmmaker Judd Apatow, who interviews Brooks at length. Apatow, along with co-director Michael Bonfiglio, has previously also captured in documentary form George Carlin and Garry Shandling.

Drawing on ample archival footage and candid interviews, he and Bonfiglio take us back to the beginning with Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky), the youngest of four boys of a widowed mother in Brooklyn, all of them off to World War II, all safely returned, with Brooks telling Apatow, “War changed me. If you don’t get killed in the Army, you can learn a lot.”

His career moves to the raucous Sid Caesar writers’ room and we do also hear, rather wistfully, from Brooks’ three children and his first wife, former Broadway dancer Florence Baum, before he was off to moviemaking in California in the early 1960s. His granddaughter Samantha is charming.

You will hear Brooks tell a terrific Cary Grant story (one he has told many times over the years on the various late-night talk shows where he has been a frequent guest) but, more tenderly, tales of his courtship and marriage to actress Anne Bancroft. Gene Wilder shares feelings that go far deeper than director and star. And we get details of Brooks’ long friendship with writer-director Reiner, from the early 1960s to their sharing dinners together as widowers every night watching “Jeopardy” on TV.

Bancroft died in 2005; their son, novelist Max, is tender in interviews. Reiner’s wife Estelle died in 2008 and Reiner in 2020. Hearing Reiner’s son, filmmaker Rob, talk about his father and Brooks gives one a chill, knowing this was one of the final conversations before he and his wife Michele Singer Reiner’s December murders.

The number of people with whom Brooks has shared his creative life will impress and perhaps surprise you. There’s Richard Pryor, who did a bit of writing for “Blazing Saddles,” who says, “He’s a loving man. It’s about love with him.”

The late director David Lynch credits Brooks with saving his career by hiring him to direct “The Elephant Man” after seeing Lynch’s “Eraserhead.” In addition to his own movies, Brooks produced such films, through his Brooksfilms, as “The Fly,” “My Favorite Year,” “Frances” and others, taking a rare low profile lest his name lead moviegoers to think they would be seeing comedies.

Naturally, we hear from a large crowd of showbiz folks and all of them — Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman, Conan O’Brien, Josh Gad, Robert Townsend, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and others — are complimentary. There must be someone in that backbiting swamp that is Hollywood who isn’t a Brooks fan, but such a person is not to be found here.

Whatever your relationship with Brooks beforehand, this film will enrich it. Will you understand what makes him tick? I don’t know, and you won’t care. Just spending time with him is satisfying enough.

His famously quick wit has not lost a step. When Apatow asks, “You lost your father at an early age?” Brooks quickly replies, “No, no. My father died.”

His ability to recall names and places and laughs is, frankly, astonishing. He is not only able to remember but to enjoy, to savor. We should all be so lucky.

In the film, he says, “Sometimes my comedy is just to celebrate the joy of being alive.” And as he has said many times in his many years, he has always used humor as “a defense against the universe.” Few, if any, have done it better.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com