Yes, ‘Breaking Bad’ Got Albuquerque Right. Breaking Bad, which recently won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, revolves around a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher-turned-meth-lord who goes to great lengths to make money for his family. Is Albuquerque, where the show is set, really as rife with vice, crime, and sin as depicted in the show? Yes, says native Madeleine Carey. “Albuquerque is breaking. It always has been, and likely always will be,” she writes. “But that’s what I like about it.”
To Remember JFK, Let Them Come to Whiskeytown. As we approach the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it’ll be hard to escape the deluge of remembrances, conspiracy theories, and sex tales. But Californians have an alternative commemoration of the late president if they want it. California editor Joe Mathews recalls JFK’s visit to Whiskeytown Lake on September 28, 1963, and explains why a speech the president gave that day remains deeply relevant to present-day Californians.
A World That’s Overdeveloped, Fatter, and Sadder. How much more depressed are Parisians than the Taiwanese? What did people in the 17th century believe about baths and humidity and fat? Why do fish have pebbles in their heads? Find out in this week’s Six-Point Inspection.
Women of L.A., City Hall Misses You. Last Monday, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, former deputy mayor and mayoral candidate Linda Griego, KPCC politics reporter Alice Walton, and former chief of staff to Mayors Villaraigosa and Riordan Robin Kramer discussed what’s behind L.A.’s shortage of elected female officials. The panel was moderated by Mariel Garza, opinion editor at Los Angeles Daily News.
Playing My Country Song in a Cineplex. How did Jim Van NewKirk end up playing his country music between the ticket booth and concessions at a movie theater in the Inland Empire? He’s learned you have to be willing to move around. NewKirk writes, “I do know that I’ll keep writing and recording, and I’ll always find places to play—and people to listen.”
Next week …
Andrés Martinez’s eulogy to the Blackberry …
John Douglass on Janet Napolitano and the future of the UC system …
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