A-Town Magazine
St. Bernard dogs still roam the Swiss Alps as part of this ‘living museum’ and its breeding program
BOURG-SAINT-PIERRE, Switzerland | At the Great St. Bernard Pass high in the Swiss Alps, the eponymous dogs still walk the same mountain paths their ancestors patrolled for hundreds of years to find travelers buried beneath the snow. Down in the valley, a living museum honoring the Swiss national dog’s history — and its future — […]
Hollywood gets into the microdrama race as mobile-first storytelling draws stars and major studios
LOS ANGELES | While much of Hollywood was consumed by the streaming wars, Issa Rae was studying a different mode of entertainment thousands of miles away: microdramas. No stranger to creating a successful online series, the Emmy-nominated actor and producer became intrigued by China’s booming market for the short, mobile-first soap operas, seeing its potential […]
Inside country legend Alan Jackson’s triumphant finale concert
NASHVILLE, Tenn. | The time has come for country music superstar Alan Jackson to hang up his signature Stetson hat. The genre traditionalist from Newnan, Georgia, whose career kicked off in the 1980s and exploded shortly thereafter in the oft-cited ’90s country wave with heartfelt songs for the working man who’d rather be drinking, or […]
Charlie Brown’s longtime pen pal is finally revealed in new Apple TV ‘Peanuts’ movie
NEW YORK | Charlie Brown began writing to a pen pal not long after the comic strip “Peanuts” debuted in newspapers back in 1950. No one has gotten a look at whoever was on the other end of his letters — until now. Her name is Mia, and she’s a young girl from London of […]
Norman Rockwell people-watched in the West Wing lobby. Now those sketches are on public display
WASHINGTON | For more than 40 years, sketches by American illustrator Norman Rockwell of scenes from the White House visitor’s lobby graced the walls of the West Wing, where every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump had seen them. Now, they’re going on public display for the first time after a nonprofit organization paid […]
What to Stream: ‘Enola Holmes 3,’ Madonna and the ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel series ‘Elle’
“Enola Holmes 3” and a new album from Madonna are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also, among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: the “Legally Blonde” prequel series, a look at Ralph Lauren’s stamp collection […]
Get a load of this: Humans and great apes share similar giggles
NEW YORK | Humans and great apes have been giggling in similar ways since branching off the evolutionary tree, a new study suggests. How do we know this? Researchers tickled 13 captive apes — including gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos — and recorded the results. The new research reexamined those decades-old recordings and compared them […]
Happy birthday, 2000 Year Old Man. Mel Brooks is turning 100
NEW YORK | The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100. Mel Brooks on Sunday will celebrate his centennial birthday. The comedian and filmmaker has been awaiting the milestone. Earlier this year, Judd Apatow titled his retrospective documentary on him: “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” “I was born to make people laugh,” Brooks […]
Movie Review: ‘Jackass: Best and Last’ is just a clip-job of greatest hits. And we mean hits
Pour one out for the “Jackass” crew. They’re done. “Jackass: Best and Last” is a sad but fitting end to an extreme stunt franchise that was vanquished not by imagination but time. The fifth and final main installment has all that you’d expect from the Jackass Cinematic Universe — genitalia, electricity, gravity and port-a-potties, often […]
Apple increases prices for Macs and iPads, blaming a shortage of memory chips
Apple on Thursday announced an increase in prices for Macs and iPads, citing a memory chip shortage brought on by the artificial intelligence boom. The Cupertino, California-based company called the demand spike an “unprecedented challenge” for the consumer electronics industry. “The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for […]