Percival Everett's 'James' is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction
NEW YORK — 'James,' Percival Everett 's acclaimed reworking of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
Everett's version of Mark Twain's classic, now narrated by the enslaved title character, already won the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize and the Carnegie Medal for fiction.
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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Safe and sound: Orange County's oldest music store reopens in Laguna
Wave Baker, a longtime employee of Sound Spectrum, will tell anyone who listens that the place has 'an energy of its own.' So when the Laguna Beach-based record shop, which opened on South Coast Highway in 1967, closed in October, Baker had a feeling it wasn't over. Whether it was more than a feeling, what happened next was more than he hoped for. A music-oriented family came forward with a bid, planning to revive the business and restore the building. James, Audrey and Sadie Jean Wilcox, siblings who grew up in the nearby city of Tustin, worked together to reopen Orange County's oldest music store. After spending more than two decades working under the original owners, Jimmy and Edith Otto, Baker was asked to remain on staff. 'In a sense, I'm a bridge from the old to the new,' Baker said. 'I met with them, and we got along, and they wanted my help. I said, 'Well, I come with one condition — my left and my right arm. Travis [Garman] and Niloo [Aghaseyedali] were part of the old, and now we're all three part of the new.' James, 28, recalled visiting Sound Spectrum during surfing trips to Laguna Beach. In December, when he learned the iconic record store had closed, he called Wave. Within a week, the family had submitted an offer that was accepted. 'At the end of the day, a record store sells music,' James said. 'The special thing about this store is that it has sold music for so many decades. It sold music through the vinyl era, through the cassette era, through the CD era, and then all the way back again. 'In my opinion, the special part about this store is that it's past trends. It doesn't need to sell off of these trends. It can just keep selling music that touches people's hearts.' As for the responsibility that goes with inheriting a legacy of 57 years of service to the community, James said that Jimmy Otto created a business that could stand on its own. 'Jimmy was very much someone who could stand on his own, and he made his store stand on its own,' he added. 'We hope to keep that same energy, really forever. We believe that this store is so sacred and special. The special thing about music is that it does last forever.' James also called it a 'special moment' to have the keys to Sound Spectrum passed on to his family by Edith Otto, who also gave them a tour of the store. Audrey, 30, who is due to be married this year, compared the commitment to preserve a community staple to a wedding. 'There's like this union,' Audrey said. 'I have this connection with the former owner. … I feel like the Sound Spectrum itself is like a being of its own. I feel less that I'm the one that's deciding what happens to it and more that I'm listening to what it needs, being more like a steward to what the store wants, listening to that and making it happen. That's been my biggest source of inspiration is just what … everyone needs.' The Wilcox family's music industry experience has been driven by a burgeoning career for Sadie Jean, 23, as a singer-songwriter. James and Audrey, both of whom have business backgrounds, have helped manage her career. She has nearly two dozen shows lined up in Europe this fall, and she's preparing to release her first album later this year. Sadie Jean revealed she has been writing songs from a young age, but she was unsure if her family would embrace that side of her. 'It was so funny because once I told people I could sing and write songs, my family was like my biggest champions,' Sadie Jean said. 'Now they manage me, and my siblings manage me. My career became like a really big family thing, and my parents go on tour with me. All of a sudden, we're like a music family after being so like not at all. 'I think it just made so much sense when we found out that the record store in our community that we love was about to be gone forever. It felt so serendipitous. It was like a calling that we had to take it on and save it because music is built into our family culture now.' The return of the record store was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday evening, music pumping as people perused the aisles stocked with selections of vinyl, CDs and posters spanning the decades. Local artists also collaborate, leading restorative efforts at the store. Amanda Burke touched up a mural by Bill Ogden, and a display by Brighid Burnes in the front window depicts musicians jamming away on various instruments. 'I saw many fathers or mothers say to their kid, 'I bought my first record here in the '80s,' Baker said. 'I want that little kid to be able to say that to their kids 30 years from now, long after I'm gone. I know the importance of that feeling. … That's what I want to keep. That's part of what I want to help survive.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Video: Millennial Mom Dances Through Milestones With Kids
Every mother's approach toward parenting differs depending on a bunch of factors, including but not limited to their experiences and culture. Nevertheless, one thing's certain: they bring their own styles and practices while raising their children. This makes each of their journeys different yet beautiful at the same time. A millennial mom is now going viral on Instagram for her entertaining and rocking approach toward motherhood in a video, documenting her dancing through milestones with her kids. The girls reciprocated her energy, making it twice as exciting. This Instagram video proved that you might never meet a millennial mom as cool as Emily Scott James, leaving her kids with interesting stories to tell. James pulled off a full dance routine for her twin daughters, finding their milestones through moves, music, and of course, Sean Paul. The moment showed how she turned the small things in life into something joyous to celebrate her girlhood and motherhood at one go. It showed signs of bonding without verbally communicating, marking small wins in their long journey, and a unique parenting style. In a subtext, the mother explained, 'POV: you're a millennial teaching your babies to clap.' She couldn't have opted for a better song as she likely herself grew up listening to the artist's popular track, which has been every 90s kid's jam for years. In the clip, her two little girls sat in their high chairs while she danced in front of them, clapping to the beats of the singer's massively hit song 'Temperature.' The twins reciprocated the same energy level and appeared ecstatic to watch their mom, who put her best effort to achieve the milestone. Moreover, viewers collectively agreed that the kids would be forever grateful for their millennial mom's electric dance moves in the video. One commenter remarked, 'Those dance moves HAVE to get them clapping.' The clip even showed how the twins could barely take their eyes off James, who went all out to execute the performance and got her babies clapping. With spiked energy levels, the duo sat in their chairs looking at their mother in complete awe and a lot of admiration. The post Video: Millennial Mom Dances Through Milestones With Kids appeared first on Momtastic.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Bridget Everett on How ‘Somebody Somewhere' Was the Best Experience of Her Life: ‘It's Like, Now What Am I Gonna Do?'
Bridget Everett isn't quite sure how she could ever top 'Somebody Somewhere.' The show ended its three-season run at the end of 2024 with a moving gathering of the show's characters and a strong musical number in which her character, Sam, finally feels ready to accept the love and friendship of the community she has created in her small hometown. 'I'm so grateful that I got to do it, and I miss doing it all the time,' Everett tells Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast of her HBO series. 'I still think about them. I think about the show and people come up to me a lot, so it lives on for me. I talk to people about it on the street all the time and as much as I am uncomfortable having conversations with strangers, I really enjoy it because it's personal to me. I love that people connect to it, and sometimes in a profound way, because they've dealt with a similar kind of grief.' More from Variety Alexis Bledel Withdraws From Emmy Race for 'The Handmaid's Tale' Due to New Guest Actor Rules (EXCLUSIVE) 'The Studio' and 'Hacks' Are Two of the Best Shows Ever About Hollywood - But Are They Too Inside or PTSD-Inducing? How 'The Studio,' 'Yellowjackets,' 'Monsters' and 'White Lotus' Make Bad Behavior Appealing 'Somebody Somewhere' stars Everett as Sam, a woman who moves home to Manhattan, Kan., as she mourns the death of a sister while reconnects with her other sister Trisha (Mary Catherine Garrison). Along the way, she builds new bonds with friends like Joel (Jeff Hiller), his eventual husband Brad (Tim Bagley) and Fred (Murray Hill). 'It's changed me and helped me be a lot more at peace with myself,' Everett says. 'You get the dream of making a show with people that you love and in a way that you want to tell a story, and then if it makes you feel better in the end, I mean, it's like, now what am I gonna do? Because I feel like I've had the best experience of my life.' On this bonus edition of the Variety Awards Circuit podcast, we tackle that question of what Everett might do next, how the folks in her hometown reacted to being put in the spotlight, and how 'Somebody Somewhere' really resonated with audiences as something truly special. Also on this episode, we talk to Paul Giamatti about his standout episode of this season's 'Black Mirror.' Listen below! Everett has an amazing voice, as fans of her cabaret shows, theater performances and other music gigs (including her band The Tender Moments) can attest. But 'Somebody Somewhere' viewers got a taste of that singing prowess too — particularly in the show's series finale. 'There's nothing that makes me happier than singing, and there's nothing that makes me sometimes sadder than singing,' she tells Variety's Awards Circuit Podcast. 'But it's really, putting the show together, to find a way to incorporate music that that felt organic. We never wanted to do a big 'Glee'-style number. We wanted to do something how music sort of is part of the fabric of my life or Sam's life.' In the finale, Everett's character Sam brings her friends and sister together to the bar where she works, and she sings 'The Climb,' by Miley Cyrus. 'I used to sing that song live in some of my road shows, and I've always loved it,' she says. 'It is kind of sentimental and on the nose, like the lyrics are very literal. But to me, I never get tired of singing it.' Besides tackling grief, friendship, love and relationships, 'Somebody Somewhere' shined a spotlight on the kind of town that is rarely seen on TV. 'My family, we're all from there — my brother still lives there, and my mom lived there at the time when she was still alive,' Everett says. 'I was like, I want them to be proud of this. I want Manhattan to be proud of this. 'We did a final watch party there, and the cast all came back with me,' she says. 'The feeling in the room was like a rock concert. It was so emotional. I was weeping, just being around all these people that the show connected with that were from there. Feeling like we got that right was so moving to me.' So what is next? 'We're trying to dream up something else,' Everett adds.' I want to do something that feels right, but I want to work. I want to do something. It's hard after you do something that's built for you. I had such a big part of the creative elements, the writing, the producing, all that business. I want to be able to do that again.' Variety's 'Awards Circuit' podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, 'Awards Circuit' features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Sci-Fi Surges, FYC Crunch Pressure, and Comedy Category Shakeups Across 94 Races
