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Arts & Culture

Random Gems From Culture Lust Week: TAL, David Simon, And NCAA Madness

David Simon, creator of the "The Wire" and the new HBO show "Treme."
David Simon, creator of the "The Wire" and the new HBO show "Treme."

I have two brackets in play for the NCAA tourney and am reigning champion - 2 years in a row! - here at KPBS. Let's hope I fare better in the coming weeks than I did yesterday (Oh Hoyas, why did you forsake me?). Since I have actual cash in play, my first endorsement this week is the NCAA basketball tournament!

More random gems from the week:

Most interesting Tweet:

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It came on day two of the NCAA tournament. ESPN tweeted: "Perfection update: Out of nearly 4.8 mill. brackets-now just 2 perfect brackets remaining on ESPN.com." That's incredible.

What articles did I enjoy this week?

It should come as no surprise that I'm eagerly awaiting David Simon's new HBO drama "Treme" (begins on April 11th). The New York Times Magazine has a long, well-written piece on the show, with great details from the set, the writing room, and the early stages of pitching the New Orleans-based show to HBO execs.

I really liked this piece on local arts blog Andrews Arts about assemblage artist Joseph Bennett. Bennett lives in Mexico and he prefers US trash to Mexican trash for treasure hunting, mostly because Americans throw away so much stuff.

HuffPo has a video about UCSD biology professor, Dr. Milton Saier, freeganism, and his practice of dumpster diving.

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Russ Havens, a 44-year-old newspaper marketing specialist from San Diego, recently launched TicketStubCollection.net, a site that encourages people to upload images of their ticket stubs, creating a sort of all-purpose virtual scrapbook of ticket history.

David Denby writes an in-depth piece on Clint Eastwood for The New Yorker.

Favorite audio gems of the week?

This American Life has a gripping story from San Diegan James Spring. It's about his attempt to rescue two missing children who were kidnapped and taken to Mexico by suspected meth-addicted murderers.

We were lucky enough to have artist Robert Irwin in studio this week for a These Days interview. His new show at Quint Contemporary Art opens tonight and runs through May 1st.

Favorite viewing experience from the week?

Fergal O'Dougherty, professor of Irish literature at Palomar College and recent guest on These Days, told me about this short film from Ireland. It's called "New Boy."

Short Film: "New Boy"