Entertainment
Commentary: My travel nightmare made me realize that self-service culture is capitalism’s greatest con
The sun is shining, the fire threat is low and for the first time in 25 years, no part of California is experiencing drought. Except of course in the hope and joy department.
It’s the middle of January, which means the holidays are well and truly over and whatever fanciful shine the prospect of a “new” year held as it approached has already dimmed into grim reality.
Of course I want to face this year determined to be a happier, kinder, more empathetic and more just person. But just as it’s tough to honorably pay one’s taxes knowing millionaires and billionaires are weaseling out of theirs, it’s hard to gin up personal-improvement energy when every news cycle brings proof that an alarming number of people are perfectly willing to believe that black is white, science is fake, we should all be cooking with beef tallow and failure to stop when an unidentified ICE agent tells you to is, apparently, punishable by death.
Also all that water everyone has been telling us to drink may be full of microplastics.
See, now I’m just getting upset again. Which is just too 2025 to bear. Mercifully, I have just discovered a cache of surviving holiday mint M&M’s (which may or may not contain beef tallow) and, equally important, I have a plan to make life better for everyone.
(At least until the midterms, when we will discover once and for all if this democratic experiment has any hope of lasting another year.)
It’s very simple, really: We need to demand the resurrection of customer service and put large numbers of well-paid and trained employees back in charge.
Seriously. I know it’s fun, and purportedly “convenient,” to be able to accomplish our banking/shopping/travel/bill paying/ticket buying/food ordering/health monitoring/everything else through a series of apps, websites and self-checkout kiosks.
But the lack of trained and helpful humans is getting out of control.
How many of us have stood, casting wild-eyed glances for help, when the grocery checkout sensors failed to register a carton of eggs that is clearly in the bagging area and there is only one store attendant tasked with aiding 20 or more finicky machines?
Or searched, panic-stricken, for the payment confirmation email that we may or may not have received because we forgot to screenshot an online transaction that is now being called into question via some upsetting email with a DO NOT RESPOND return address?
A friend of mine recently went to her doctor for ongoing treatment of her arthritic hands only to be told that she needed to fill out all her personal information, including her medical history, again because the office had switched systems. Apparently, the job of transferring file information was too difficult (read: expensive) to be accomplished by software, so it was being handed to … the patients. “Don’t worry,” said the guy sitting directly in front of the office computer. “You can just do it now on your phone.”
Yeah, that won’t take time and effort, and did I mention she was there for treatment of her arthritic hands?
The abandonment of any notion of customer service — now often called “customer assistance” or, even better, “customer support” (as in we will supportively assist you by directing you to our website or app, which may or may not be helpful/functioning) — is never clearer than when one travels.
Hideous delays and last-minute cancellations of flights have become so commonplace that airlines now advise building in a cushion of an extra day or two on each end of one’s journey. In other words, in addition to the cost of your actual flight, you should be prepared to pay even more in time or money because the airlines certainly are not.
On a long-planned holiday trip to London and Antwerp, Belgium, in December, our flight from LAX was abruptly moved to the next day — no warning, no explanation, no American Airlines personnel at the gate. Just a series of alerts that those who had the AA app received, along with the reassurance that those who qualified would be issued vouchers via email for lodging and food. Since we lived in the L.A. area (albeit a 90-minute drive from LAX at that time of day), we were out of luck — we could either pay hundreds of dollars for back and forth cab fare or book our own hotel near the airport.
(Other family members, leaving via Charlotte, N.C., had it even worse — a malfunction trapped a plane full of people, including my son and his girlfriend, on the runway for five hours before they were released, after midnight. When they finally tracked down an actual staff member, they were given vouchers to a motel that appeared, as Melissa McCarthy’s character says in “Spy,” “so murdery” that they decided to book their own.)
As if that were not enough to prevent us from ever traveling again, we were victims of the great Dec. 30 Eurostar shutdown, during which all trains into, and out of, the U.K. were abruptly canceled for more than 24 hours due to a power-grid failure in the English Channel Tunnel.
We had just been assured that we would soon be boarding our train from Brussels when the news came down over a loudspeaker, in four languages.
Picture, if you will, hundreds of now-stranded travelers, clamoring in panic-stricken English, French, Dutch and German as they streamed into the Brussels-Midi station where one Eurostar agent, one, stood, not suggesting alternate means of reaching our destination but handing out Xeroxed pages directing everyone to the Eurostar app and website.
Where no tickets were available for days and the process of claiming a refund or compensation for lodging and other expenses was an endless maze of questions that needed to be answered when all anyone wanted to know was how in the hell do we get to London now.
With no flights available until Jan. 3, days after we were scheduled to fly out of Heathrow Airport, we finally rented a car, at hideous cost, and fled Europe, with some historical poignancy, via midnight-landing ferry from Dunkirk. (If it sounds fun, I am not telling it right.)
My point is not that travel should always go smoothly — things break, weather turns, accidents happen. My point is that if you are a company that is paid to get people from one place to another, you should have enough personnel to help those people reach their destinations as quickly and seamlessly as possible should things go wrong.
Instead of, you know, casting them literally onto the street and forcing them to conjure up their own imperfect, and very expensive, DIY solutions.
Because that’s what the digital age has made us — a DIY economy in which millions of jobs no longer exist not because computers do the work, but because the work has been shifted, via computers, directly onto the consumer.
Who increasingly has little or no choice in the matter. Try to get a car at an auto rental agency without booking it online first; you might as well attempt to barter your watch and three chickens as payment.
It would be one thing if, by scheduling your own appointments, keeping track of your own medical tests, bagging your own groceries and filling out all the information needed to book your own reservations for planes, trains and automobiles, you got a discount.
But no; half the time, corporations have the audacity to charge a service fee on top of the money they have saved by not hiring someone to do the work you, the consumer, just did.
Is it any wonder why people are so testy these days?
Especially when, having done all the work only to be informed by alert that it was all in vain; they have to wait in line for the one teller/manager/gate agent available to explain to them that they “just” need to manage their booking/transaction online.
How much better it would be if there were actual people, trained and experienced, in numbers large enough to prevent endless queues, to make customers feel like customers again, instead of isolated pioneers quietly losing their minds in an effort to buy whatever goods and services companies are selling.
I’m not saying it would solve all of our problems, but it would go a long way to lowering the national temperature. It is amazing what a genial, helpful interaction can do to lift everyone’s spirits and make people feel like they are respected and valued, as individuals with reasonable needs, and not just faceless bundles of credit card information and regrettable meltdown moments.
Not to mention all the jobs, and career paths, at all levels, restoring customer service could provide.
Because being unemployed tends to make people quite aggravated and unhappy too.
Entertainment
Todd Meadows, ‘Deadliest Catch’ deckhand, dies at 25
Todd Meadows, a crewmember on one of the fishing vessels featured on the long-running reality series “Deadliest Catch,” has died. He was 25.
Rick Shelford, the captain of the Aleutian Lady, announced in a Monday post on Facebook and Instagram that Meadows died Feb. 25. He called it “the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.”
“We lost our brother,” Shelford wrote in his lengthy tribute. “Todd was the newest member of our crew, he quickly became family. His love for fishing and his strong work ethic earned everyone’s respect right away. His smile was contagious, and the sound of his laughter coming up the wheelhouse stairs or over the deck hailer is something we will carry with us always.
“He worked hard, loved deeply, and brought joy to those around him,” he added. “Todd will forever be part of this boat, this crew, and this brotherhood. Though we lost him far too soon, his legacy will live on through his children and in every memory we carry of him.”
A fundraiser set up in Meadows’ name described the deckhand from Montesano, Wash., as a father to “three amazing little boys” who died “while doing what he loved — crabbing out on Alaskan waters.”
According to the Associated Press, Meadows died after he was reported to have fallen overboard around 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
“He was recovered unresponsive by the crew approximately ten minutes later,” Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told the AP. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
Meadows was a first-year cast member of “Deadliest Catch,” the Discovery Channel reality series that follows crab fishermen navigating the perilous winds and waves of the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons. The show debuted in 2005. No episodes from Meadows’ season has aired.
Deadline reported that the show was in production on its 22nd season when the incident occurred, with the Shelford-led Aleutian Lady being the last of the vessels still out at sea at the time. Production has subsequently concluded, per the outlet.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Todd Meadows,” a Discovery Channel spokesperson said in a statement that has been widely circulated. “This is a devastating loss, and our hearts are with his loved ones, his crewmates, and the entire fishing community during this incredibly difficult time.”
Meadows is the latest among “Deadliest Catch” cast members who have died. Previous deaths include Phil Harris, a captain of one of the ships featured on the show, who died after suffering a stroke while filming the show’s sixth season in 2010. Todd Kochutin, a crew member of the Patricia Lee, died in 2021 from injuries he sustained while aboard the fishing vessel, according to an obituary. Other cast members have died from substance abuse or natural causes.
Movie Reviews
‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years
“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway.
It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.
Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.
We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.
Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.
That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.
Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.
The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.
And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged.
“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.
HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.
Entertainment
How a mural of Altadena became a symbol of resilience for one small store, through fire and flood
Every time Adriana Molina drives up Lake Avenue to her retro-style women’s clothing shop Sidecca in Altadena, she sees the new outdoor mural she commissioned for the store by muralist and illustrator Annie Bolding. It gives her hope.
“I’m here to stay, and this mural solidified my decision to reopen my business,” said Molina on a recent winter day, sitting next to Bolding inside the boutique. “I grew up in Altadena. The community has motivated me this whole time, and I want them to drive by this mural and smile.”
“ALTADENA.” The word — in big white letters, set against layers of blue — appears toward the top of the mural, on the store’s brick wall facing Lake. Above are the San Gabriel Mountains, painted a deep brown, California poppies and Mariposa Street and Lake Avenue street signs. Below are green grass, a monarch butterfly and Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane. A bright blue house is on a multicolored striped path in the middle of the mural. Next to it, on a hiking trail, a sign says, “Welcome Home Altadena… With Love, Sidecca.”
For Molina and Bolding, the mural is a personal ode to the Eaton fire-ravaged community — art as a message of optimism and healing.
A car passes by the new Altadena mural on the side of Sidecca apparel shop, which commissioned the piece after fire and floods devastated the community.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
When the fire tore through Altadena in January 2025, Sidecca and a few other stores on the north side of Mariposa Street’s bustling Mariposa Junction survived, while the other half-block of businesses burned to the ground. The fire leveled Bolding’s parents’ house off Lake and the home of one of Molina’s close relatives.
Molina staged pop-ups and sold merchandise online during months of remediation, and officially reopened Sidecca’s doors in November as part of Mariposa Junction’s larger comeback. Then the store suffered another blow: flooding and damage during rainstorms in late December. While Molina prepped to temporarily close her store yet again for renovations, Bolding began work on the mural. She started painting on the one-year anniversary of the fire and finished eight days later.
“On the day I started it, it was so cold and windy, and I was scared being up on the ladder,” said Bolding. “But getting to talk to community members while I was painting was very special. People were excited and honking as they drove by. That night, I drove up to the lot where my parents’ place was, and I stood there and all the feelings flooded back.”
The mural’s origin story is that of two creative women bound by strength and a desire to give back.
Molina, who has worked in the fashion industry for more than 30 years, opened Sidecca’s Altadena spot in 2023, after closing its longtime Pasadena location. Voted Pasadena’s best women’s clothing store five times by Pasadena Weekly, Sidecca sells fun vintage-inspired merchandise and clothes, from ‘50s style dresses to snazzy magnets, tote bags and sunglasses. A big rainbow zips across the top of one of the store’s walls.
A display in Sidecca in 2023, two years before the Eaton fire devastated Altadena.
(Alejandro R. Jimenez)
“A few months after Sidecca opened in Altadena, my mom walked in and saw how colorful it was, and said, ‘This reminds me of my daughter,’ ” Bolding said. “With zero hesitation, my mom said to Adriana, ‘Here’s her Instagram. This is my daughter’s stuff.’ ”
Bolding, who goes by Disco Day Designs, calls herself “a joyful creator who loves to intentionally transform spaces.” Known for the bright murals she creates for brands and shops, Bolding gained attention on social media for a trash bin she painted with palm trees and stripes. She brought it to the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as part of a contest organized by the festival’s sustainability partner, Global Inheritance.
“I fixated on the trash can,” said Molina. “I looked at Annie’s murals and was like, ‘Oh, she has to do something in here for us.’ ”
“Game recognizes game,” added Bolding, smiling.
Molina wanted to rebrand Sidecca with a new logo, bags and art, and connected with Bolding about that and a possible mural inside the store. “I wanted ‘Sidecca’ painted across a wall as an acronym that stands for style, individuality, diversity, expression, community, culture and art,” she said. “That’s who we are.”
Then came Jan. 7, 2025.
The store was closed all day for a holiday lunch. Then the winds picked up and the flames roared. Molina, who lives with her husband and two children on the Altadena-Pasadena, evacuated with her family to Long Beach and came back days later. She knew the store was OK because she’d seen it — intact — on the news.
“As soon as we could come up to the shop, we went,” Molina said. “There were ashes all over.”
Bolding and her husband were in Palm Springs fixing up an AirBnb they cohost when Bolding got a call from her mom about the fire in Altadena. She urged her mom, dad and younger brother to evacuate. After they did, their home burned down. Her parents now live in a Pasadena apartment.
When Molina started selling Altadena-themed merch on Sidecca’s website, Bolding donated three designs, including one with lively retro daisies. In July, she wrote an email to Molina reviving the idea of a mural, but outside versus inside, as an ode to Altadena.
“It felt like anything I could do to bring joy, let’s go,” said Molina. “And I really wanted a little house in there, and for it to say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”
The mural would be Bolding’s first public piece of art on a main street.
“Lake always felt like the road going home,” she said. “That rainbow road in the mural, leading to the mountains, is so symbolic. Very ‘Wizard of Oz.’ The mountains, their silhouette, have always felt majestic, safe, and why it was so heartbreaking anytime to see them burn. To me, they feel like mother.”
Muralist Annie Bolding stands in front of her new Altadena mural on the side of the Sidecca apparel shop. The work is Bolding’s first piece of public art on a main street.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Bolding’s joyful daisies decorated the Sidecca tote bag given to customers at November’s reopening, just before December’s intense rainstorms. Water gushed through Sidecca’s ceiling. Molina and her employee Manisa Ianakiev were overwhelmed.
“We were like, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” said Molina. “Then people started bringing tools and towels. It was an example of community.”
Bolding planned to start painting the mural Jan. 4, during the Altadena Forever Run, but rain swept through. After Molina’s landlord installed a plywood base, Bolding started on the mural several days later.
Since then, the shop’s ceiling has been replaced, and Molina is working on trying to replace the floor — while continuing to stage pop-ups and sell merchandise online — before fully reopening the bricks-and-mortar boutique this spring.
“People say, ‘Every time I go into your store, I just get happy. I’m in a better mood,’ ” said Molina. “I get that all the time. And what Annie has done, this mural, is beautiful. It makes me happy.”
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