Dear Friends,

The New Year is here and after a week’s break we are back with a lot to enjoy.

First we have breaking news about a very special appearance just announced for the February 12-13 screenings of Vertigo with the San Francisco Symphony’s live accompaniment.

Daniel Barnes and Darcey Self-Barnes share their unique His & Hers Beer Notes about Paris of the West from the Almanac Beer Company.

The second new Western to be released this winter is The Revenant directed by last year’s Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It is a very different kind of movie than his previous works from Amores Perros to Birdman. A more traditional narrative it is also a big budget epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Our shootout at the Critics Corner has Western author and historian Jim Kitses and film critic Jeff Anderson offering their perspectives.

Continuing in the spirit of the Old West, Eat My Shorts features comedic, animated and just plan strange cowboy movies of the past.

Ray Bradbury wrote hundreds of stories, books and essays. He also tried his hand at screenplays for the movies, most notably adapting Moby Dick for John Huston. Roger Leatherwood reviews the new biography Ray Bradbury Unbound by Jonathan R. Eller. An excerpt accompanies this review.

And for dessert, in her Baker’s Dozen, Diane Boate offers a classic recipe and some fascinating history of “The Secret Cake of the Brown Derby- Chiffon.”

Enjoy.

Barry, Gary and Kenn