If the burgeoning pool of male singer/songwriters hitting the mainstream this year hasn’t suited your fancy, you might want to take a look at Howie Day. Unlike John Mayer and Jack Johnson, who compose catchy and laidback “pretty-boy” tunes (and darn good ones too), songs from Howie Day’s Epic Records debut, “Australia,” are full of [...]

Alas, the last weeks of summer mark the end of our guilty-pleasure television viewing experience with “Big Brother 3.” In mid-September, one final houseguest will emerge the winner of the $500,000 prize.
Jason won Head of Household last week and, in the toughest decision of his life, nominated Gerry and Amy for eviction. Tonight, we predict [...]

It’s me, not you. I know you’ve heard that one before, but it really is me this time. Yes, Ms. Sass is pulling the plug on our summer romance and bidding you, her faithful reader, adieu. But before I move on, Roxy would like to impart some words of wisdom from the department of disassociation [...]

George Curts, who graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s in religious studies in June, died on August 17 while hiking in the Arroyo Seco Gorge, west of Greenfield, Calif. He was 22.
A hiking companion saw Curts slip on a steep trail and fall roughly 200 feet, according to the Monterey County Coroner’s Office.
Curts was about [...]

The Princeton Review ranked Stanford the “toughest school to get into” in its recently published “345 Best Colleges” guide.
The book, which is the country’s most popular college guide, was released on August 19. It ranks schools in 63 categories, including biggest party schools, happiest students and most studious student body.
While 60 of the 63 lists [...]

“City by the Sea” is a heartless police thriller with as much energy as an old episode of “Columbo.”
Robert DeNiro stars as Vincent LaMarca, a police detective trying to crack a murder case that is so open-and-shut it could be solved by Anna Nicole Smith. Frances McDormand is his girlfriend, a woman who lives downstairs [...]

Piper Perabo is cheerful and enthusiastic about her work. At the age of 24, she’s also become one of the most promising actresses of her generation.
I interviewed her at the Four Seasons in San Francisco earlier this month, when she was promoting her next film “Slap Her. . . She’s French.”
I started our conversation: “I [...]

Amidst growing concerns over low performance rates in the Ravenswood City School District, Stanford students conducted a five-week mentorship program this summer with children from East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
This summer, six Stanford students served as East Palo Alto Stanford Academy counselors for a group of 30 teens and youths from the Ravenswood City [...]

“Slap Her . . . She’s French” is a remake of the classic 1950 film “All About Eve,” with teenagers cast in the adult roles and the setting changed from Hollywood to high school.
“Eve” was graceful, clever and quick on its toes. “French” turns the volume up and pushes the characters further, but only ends [...]

They know your interests, your habits and even what you look like. But it’s doubtful that you’ve ever heard of them.
Every incoming freshman has dealt with the New Undergraduate Student Information Project, the office responsible for collecting information from all first-year students before they arrive on campus.
The summer before freshman year, incoming students are required [...]