Cover: Bold Sweat
From live poetry readings to musical performances, open-mics at local clubs and coffeehouses satisfy tribal urges for creative sharing.

News: Milpitas Place
This normally peaceful and prosperous enclave finds itself in a whodunit involving phone bills, sleazy politics and pillow talk.

Mr. Clean Blasts Flatly: Graffiti Guy Bill Reynolds stakes out his turf with commitment and fresh paint.

Polis Report: Christians with attitude.

Public Eye: Tensions run high at a Los Gatos Community fundraiser.

Still Life With Monster: Anthony Hopkins relishes the painter's bad-boy ways in 'Surviving Picasso.'

Shoot To Kill: The lions do not sleep tonight in 'The Ghost and the Darkness.'

W.H.a.T.'s the Matter Here?: John Wedemeyer talks about why the South Bay's acclaimed and eclectic blues band W.H.a.T. remains unsigned.

Pinning Down the Butterfly of Fame: Like Puccini's Pinkerton, Weezer returns -- but is new album a swan song?

Stand-Alone Rock: All-Grrrl Penny Dreadfuls don't need any male mentoring, thank you very much.

Favoring Brahms: The San Jose Symphony's pairing of Beethoven and Brahms boosts the latter.

More Than Just 'Popular': For Nada Surf's Matthew Caws, the band's big hit is just a teaser that gives the wrong idea.

Beyond the Bass-ics: Wooten pushes his instrument in new directions.

Audiofile: The latest CDs by Lateef the Truth Speaker, Catherine Wheel, Sacred Hoop and New Kingdom.

Beat Street: Fishing for compliments with Les Claypool.

Consuming Images: Photographer Robin Lasser re-creates the landscape in person and on film.

Russian Escape Artist: Novella author Vladimir Makanin finds no solace in the near future.

Knowing a Nation in Comic Books: The 'manga' craze says volumes about modern Japanese culture.

Fruitful Enterprise: As her family's orchards dwindle, cherry queen Deborah Olson continues to grow her empire, even importing holiday-season Chilean cherries.

Small Is Good: With the crush of 1996 almost over, two local winemakers believe that quality, not quantity, will be this year's hallmark.