Concept

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

"Psy," the new acrobatic trifle from Montreal's the Seven Fingers of the Hand, leaps off the shrink's couch for an evening of humorous athleticism inspired by the neuroses that plague our daily lives. The 11-member cast takes turns acting out various mental afflictions, including paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and agoraphobia. The show, at the Irvine Barclay Theatre through Sunday, has its moments of comic inspiration, but an overall lack of focus and some formulaic sequences lead to a mixed diagnosis.

When Pink Floyd first took its concept album "The Wall" to the concert stage more than three decades ago, even lead singer and chief songwriter Roger Waters couldn't imagine a day when rock music might get any bigger. But 32 years later, his magnum opus about the battle between individual freedoms and authoritarian oppression has magnified beyond Waters' own expectations of yore. Now the man who once excoriated the voluminous expansion of the rock concert experience has helped institutionalize it. "I famously hated playing to large numbers of people and playing in stadiums," Waters, 68, said from a tour stop in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.

It was no surprise, of course, whenFrance'snew Socialist president, Francois Hollande, celebrated his election over the weekend at the Place de la Bastille. Once the site of the nation's most notorious prison, the square has long been the place that French leftists proclaim their victories. But while many commentators noted the symbolic importance of the Bastille, they overlook how this symbol has changed over time - a transformation that may hold a lesson for President-elect Hollande.

My husband, daughter and I spent the last two weeks of December in Bali and central Java. As we stayed at the Taman Harum Cottages, Bali, I was interested in the recommendation of the hotel by Linda St. Cyr of Malibu in Jerry Hulse's Travel Tips. We, too, enjoyed its tranquillity. However, I lost three tops and a pair of pants there. Our concern was not so much for the loss of the articles as for the complete disinterest by the staff and by the owner. Whereas the fear of future detrimental karma made stealing a fearful thing, these days it seems that tourism has started to gnaw away at this basic concept of Hinduism.

I read with great interest Marc Weingarten's review of Limp Bizkit's free Napster-sponsored concert ("The Roar of the Populist Heroes,' Aug. 12). It is beyond my abilities to comprehend Weingarten's point of view. By saying "Limp Bizkit should be commended for having its priorities straight," Weingarten and The Times are willingly supporting a concept of piracy and copyright infringement. It is frightening to me that the concept of intellectual property is being threatened and that the media are taking a biased point of view in reporting it. For a company or a band to profit at the expense of others is morally bankrupt.

Re "Is Concept of Race a Relic?" April 15: Sixty years ago, in "The Fate of Man in the Modern World," the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev curtly dismissed the concept of race as a merely "zoological category"--having no relevance in human history or society. "It is impossible," he wrote, "anywhere in history, to find a real race in the accepted zoologic-naturalist sense of the world." Human is a race; African, Asian or European are not. It's good to see that modern science has at last begun to catch up with this ancient, basically religious insight: People are different from the other animals, but our essential difference is not more real in some people than it is in others.

"The Death of Reality"? Come on guys. Get real. Any moron knows that watching bad television will not lower intelligence. Watching bad television is merely the pastime of the unintelligent. GARY POLLITT Walnut

I was interested to read (April 21) the article "Termite Bill Led to Steel House." I do not remember the exact year. We were married in 1935, and I know it was after that, but a company leased or bought a lot on Wilshire Boulevard and erected a steel-framed house as a model to sell a termite-free house. It was a well-designed house and they really plugged the idea that it would be cheap and termite-free. I heard afterward that it didn't go over too well. Now, these many years later, here is the same concept to sell the same concept.

Although the drawings are little more than doodles, Martin has developed "Mr. Boffo" into a highly entertaining comic strip. His befuddled characters remain stranded in a slightly skewed reality; they'd like to join the normal world, but they can't seem to get the moves right. Glancing at the desiccated remains in a bird cage, Mr. Boffo explains: "At first we called him 'Chirpy' . . . then it was 'Wheezy' . . . then 'Sleepy' . . . then 'Smelly' . . .

This is getting to be a pattern. Every time a major rail line opens in Los Angeles, my reaction tends to unfold in two distinct parts: excitement tempered pretty quickly by a sense of disappointment, of opportunities missed. The $930-million Expo Line is the latest example. The excitement flows from the way new transit lines are remaking - genuinely, thoroughly remaking - the civic, cultural and architectural map of Los Angeles. Running south and then bending west from downtown, skirting the campuses of L.A. Trade Tech and USC before reaching the corner of Jefferson and La Cienega boulevards, the Expo Line's first phase, with its eight stops, has brought the city's light-rail network to the doorstep of the dense Westside.

For those who think spring is all about robins arriving, or window cleaning or crocuses budding, I have two words for you: ant sex. Now, I know what you're thinking: Those tiny black creatures marching relentlessly toward the sugar bowl or streaming across the driveway are all infertile females who have no interest in sex at all. This is true. But when the days lengthen and the earth warms, the thoughts of a select class of ants turn to passion. An ant queen produces all of the other ants in the colony.

A bill backed by House Republicans would stall plans to let sea otters reclaim their historical range off Southern California because of concerns that the threatened marine mammals would compromise commercial fishing and military training operations. The Military Readiness and Southern Sea Otter Conservation Act , sponsored by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), would keep a controversial "no-otter zone" south of Point Conception in place until wildlife officials develop a plan ensuring that the furry creatures and endangered abalone recover and that the commercial shellfish harvest stays at current levels.

Sometimes you don't even need to show the actual car at a car show to generate some attention. Jaguar is taking this tactic with its announcement that it will be bringing to market in mid-2013 a two-seat sports car dubbed the F-Type. The car will likely draw heavily from the C-X16 concept that debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September. If you missed that concept, your loss. The argument that looks are subjective doesn't apply to sports cars this seductive. This is fact.

Google 's Project Glass -- the newly unveiled concept headgear that would superimpose graphics on your view of the world -- immediately made me think of Steve Martin's glasses in "The Jerk. " The ones that made him cross-eyed. With the new augmented-reality headgear, cool graphics pop up on a small screen a few inches from your right eye. Would those of us 40 and older have problems refocusing ? Honestly, just thinking about it makes my head hurt. But it's early yet. Perhaps the middle-aged can request built-in progressive lenses -- the virtual suggestion box, after all, is open.

Like angels, every automaker should have a halo. The halo is the supercar that establishes the brand's cachet and pushes the respective maker's design and performance philosophies to their extremes. Features and aesthetics bestowed upon these aspirational products then trickle down into the rest of the company's products. Since 2005, Honda and its luxury division Acura have been without such a halo car. That ended Monday in Detroit with the Acura NSX Concept. The concept previews the Acura NSX, which the company says it will build within the next three years (in Ohio, no less)

At the kitchen table in Brooklyn, N.Y., Victoria Morey has been known to sit down with her 9-year-old son and do something she's not supposed to. "I am a rebel," this mother of two confesses. What is this subversive act in which Morey engages -- with a child, no less? Long division. Yes, Morey teaches her son, who'll enter fifth grade this fall, how to divide the old-fashioned way -- you know, with descending columns of numbers, subtracting all the way down. The formula works, and she finds it quick, reliable, even soothing.

To be an environmentalist today takes less effort or conviction than it did 20 years ago. In the 1960s and '70s, those who ventured to publicly voice their opinions about preserving the environment were branded "tree-huggers" or "earth-firsters." A person who wanted to protect natural surroundings instead of develop them encountered a certain derision.

It's Christmastime in the NBA. What did the amnesty clause bring your team? The Clippers got Chauncey Billups, adding a former All-Star guard to their improving-by-the-minute roster for the bargain-bin price of about $2 million. Gilbert Arenas and Baron Davis are other waived players who could be had for little more than a cup of eggnog, at least by NBA salary standards. The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement has produced other peculiar-sounding gifts that could keep on giving into 2012.

LandRover's modernized Defender concept cars are making their North American debut at the L.A. Auto Show on Wednesday, and it's likely the concepts will come to fruition. "The reality is we are going to put it into production," said Land Rover lead designer, Gerry McGovern. "We have to. " The Defender hasn't been available in the U.S. market since 1997 because it isn't equipped with the air bags needed to pass muster with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now that similar regulations are coming down the pike in Europe, the Defender will need a radical update.