Feelies

How fitting that the Feelies played the Stones' "Paint It Black" and the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat" during their Roxy set on Tuesday. As their forebears the Velvets had done in the kaleidoscopic '60s, the Feelies, starting in the late '70s, stripped the color from the music of their day, reducing punk and new-wave styles to basic blacks, whites and grays. But at the Roxy, many colors burst forth at once in an often dynamic show.

You've heard all about how banks present a danger to the financial system once they become "too big to fail" (I'm looking at you, JPMorgan Chase). Here's the equivalent question about a much different company: Has Google become too big to trust? To ask the question is to answer it, but in case that's not explicit enough, the answer plainly is yes. It's become impossible to ignore Google's lengthening string of privacy and regulatory missteps. The company has been found by the Federal Communications Commission to have collected and kept emails and Web browsing histories, even passwords, of individuals whose Wi-Fi signals were intercepted by vehicles photographing street scenes for its Street View program.

The difference between the Feelies and Firehose is like the difference between being hypnotized and slapped in the face. Either way, the mind-set gets rearranged. The Feelies, who hail from Haledon, N.J., are gradualists, detail men (and woman, in the case of bassist Brenda Sauter), whose songs tend to unfold rather than erupt. Nuance matters with the Feelies.

Anne Hathaway vividly recalls the first time she made out with Jake Gyllenhaal: It was on the set of 2005's "Brokeback Mountain," in which the actress played the neglected wife to Gyllenhaal's smitten cowboy, and they were filming a steamy tryst in the back seat of a car. FOR THE RECORD: "Love & Other Drugs": An article in the Nov. 21 Calendar section about Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway's love scenes in "Love & Other Drugs" said the movie...

Readers of Krier's comprehensive article might be interested in knowing that the design trio of Charles Eames, George Nelson and Alexander Girard produced a multi-media cinema presentation (including "smellies") for the University of Georgia in the late '50s. The three-screen presentation, sidelined with large photo graphics, was emphasized with pertinent odors being fed through the air conditioning system of the small auditorium by Girard--exotic perfumes for the sequence of film down the Nile and incense for scenes of Gothic cathedrals.

For most of its 63 years, the downtown Variety Arts Center was known as the Figueroa Playhouse, home to the Friday Morning Club. It hosted such vaudeville and Hollywood superstars as Ed Wynn, Dick Powell and Clark Gable. Today, rock 'n' roll has taken over. The marquee on the five-story, Italian Renaissance-style building at 940 S. Figueroa St. is devoted to acts with such colorful names as the Hoodoo Gurus, Jello Biafra, Thelonious Monster, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Feelies.

"THE GOOD EARTH." The Feelies. Coyote. Like the Meat Puppets, the Feelies make laid-back guitar music with a spacey edge--new-wave folk music for yuppies. The Feelies are relatively new to this turf, having recently revamped their identity as an aggressively arty group of the brainy nerd variety. Formed six years ago by guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, the group has undergone extensive personnel changes, but its present incarnation is its most commercial to date.

We're still at Burbank Airport on a recent Friday night when my 9-year-old son, Robert, reveals himself as a true child of the Info Age. "Dad," he says, "when we get on the plane, can I use your laptop?" "Why?" "I want to get on the Internet." "How are you going to do that?" "Doesn't it have AOL?" I figure his question, technologically sophisticated in one way, also reflects a fundamental ignorance. "Son," I say, "you need some sort of communications connection to hook up with the Internet."

The small voice in his head whispered, "Go ahead, touch it." But Jason Fletcher couldn't quite make the move. He just stood in front of the cast of Richard Nixon's face and grimaced. "I've never really liked him because of his politics and this makes me uncomfortable," Fletcher explained at the Fullerton Museum Center, where Nixon's face is part of a "Touchable Sculpture" exhibit that continues through Feb. 11.

Michael Vick came through, then Shaun Alexander did him one better to win the game for Seattle. After Atlanta's Jay Feely missed a 36-yard field goal in overtime, Alexander ran 27 yards for a touchdown, giving the Seahawks a 30-24 victory Sunday. "I have to shoulder this burden," Feely said. "That's my job, to make field goals." Vick, who did little right through 3 1/2 quarters, led the Falcons tie the score with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Gaylor with 17 seconds left in regulation.

Re "Confessions from the campaign trail," Column One, Oct. 28 Your reporter covering the Obama campaign bemoaned the candidate's failure to "loosen up." What did he want? A confession about his struggle to fit into his Hawaiian high school? An intimate sharing of how he wooed Michelle? His preferred shaving lotion? Beer? Barack Obama didn't get where he is today by being everybody's favorite drinking buddy. He didn't become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review by letting it all hang out. He got where he is through watchful listening and measured actions.

THOMAS EAKINS created some of the most iconic images of American art. Even people who shun museums recognize the nobly lighted forehead of a surgeon turning to speak to a gallery of students while his fingers hold a bloody scalpel. You can buy a mouse pad with the glorious image of Max Schmitt sculling on Pennsylvania's Schuylkill River. Eakins was of the generation of another American original, Winslow Homer.

Spared the executioner three consecutive times, the Seattle Seahawks came away with a 24-21 victory in overtime Sunday that figured to be pivotal in their quest for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The executioner, meanwhile, had some explaining to do.

Of the Cabats, the husband, Erni, was the one who cultivated the image of the artist. He grew a handlebar mustache, shaved his head and wore look-at-me hats tilted to the side -- ski caps in the desert, for instance. Erni had some credentials too, having gotten the U.S.

Men don't talk to each other. Well, OK, they talk royal flush vs. full house, Shaq vs. Kobe, Red Sox vs. Yankees. But they don't sit around, as do women, and reveal, share intimacies and frailties. Right? "That's a myth," counters writer-director Andrew Bergman, who's been meeting weekly in New York City with five men for more than two decades.

Michael Vick came through, then Shaun Alexander did him one better to win the game for Seattle. After Atlanta's Jay Feely missed a 36-yard field goal in overtime, Alexander ran 27 yards for a touchdown, giving the Seahawks a 30-24 victory Sunday. "I have to shoulder this burden," Feely said. "That's my job, to make field goals." Vick, who did little right through 3 1/2 quarters, led the Falcons tie the score with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Gaylor with 17 seconds left in regulation.

Re "Confessions from the campaign trail," Column One, Oct. 28 Your reporter covering the Obama campaign bemoaned the candidate's failure to "loosen up." What did he want? A confession about his struggle to fit into his Hawaiian high school? An intimate sharing of how he wooed Michelle? His preferred shaving lotion? Beer? Barack Obama didn't get where he is today by being everybody's favorite drinking buddy. He didn't become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review by letting it all hang out. He got where he is through watchful listening and measured actions.

"Move like Nia dancers," our teacher, Sarah Lampro, exhorted us, and we did--even though some of us had no idea what that meant. I had come to the weekday morning class not knowing what to expect. A colleague who had tried a sample Nia session in Pasadena had told me that it was weird and fun. The Web site had described the practice in vague, nebulous language: "The Nia technique combines the intelligence and creativity from the East and West, Yin and Yang, Mind, Body Spirit and Soul."

Jay Feely noticed a flaw in his kicking technique, and the adjustment he made helped the Atlanta Falcons stay in the NFC playoff race. Feely made all four of his field-goal attempts, including a 52-yarder on the final play, to give Atlanta a 33-30 victory Sunday over the Buffalo Bills. Before Sunday, Feely was 11 for 18 at the Georgia Dome and 12 for 12 on the road. The game-winner was his second-longest kick of the season. He had a 55-yarder at Arizona.