Dan Webster

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Everyone dreams occasionally of changing careers. Susan Nipp and Pam Beall actually did it. Former music teachers, they both began having children at about the same time in the mid-1970s. And because they were searching for something to do that wouldn't be a full-time commitment, they hatched an idea.

Alan Rudolph's films often seem as if they were dreamed up by someone who hails from an alternate dimension. In "Welcome to L.A.," "Choose Me" and "Love at Large," the characters don't even talk like ordinary humans. The same is true for his newest film, "Afterglow." Yet Rudolph always offers something special, and this time it is Julie Christie. Rudolph's troubled psyche has earned her another Oscar nomination.

Purely '60s: Woody Allen and Mie Hama in "What's Up, Tiger Lily?"

American history is full of stories about the clash between native tribes and the immigrants of mostly European heritage who, gradually but inexorably, settled on the lands that for centuries had been open to all. James Hunter's book tells the same tale. But its very title, "Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples: Thirty Generations of a Montana Family," lets you know from the beginning that the author is after something slightly different. True, Hunter writes about culture clash. But his emphasis is, for want of a better term, on the cultural cohesion that occurred between one line of Scottish highlanders and the Nez Perce with whom they intermarried.

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Milo O'Shea and Janeane Garofalo star in "The Matchmaker."

Robert Herold remembers being given an ultimatum. Make the Eastern Washington University Press "something we can be proud of," Eastern's president Mark Drummond told him, "or kill it." That was in 1992, and Herold - the EWU executive vice provost who doubles as the press' publisher - remembers what he had to work with.

Jim McAuley plans on doing his own work now that he is no longer teaching at Eastern Washington University. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Five things you should know about "Guiding Elliott" (Lyons Press, 189 pages, $22.95), Robert Lee's novel about trout fishing. One, it was one of the top 10 best-sellers for 1997 at Missoula's Face & Fiction Bookstore.

1. From left, Alison Elliott, Linus Roache and Best Actress nominee Helena Bonham Carter in "Wings of the Dove." 2. Hollywood recognized the giftedness of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who wrote the original screenplay for "Good Will Hunting."

Jean and Jim Coolican share a moment in Olympia. Photo by Dick Milligan/Special to The Spokesman-Review

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Robert Duvall wrote, directed and stars in "The Apostle," which may be the defining movie of his career.

Gary Oldman's murdering terrorist character has the president (Harrison Ford) in a bind in "Air Force One."

I'm an idiot. That will come as no surprise to those readers who disagree with my film and book reviews. It will come as even less of a surprise to my ex-in-laws. Or my boss. But that's OK. I'll survive. Especially since I'm not alone. How do I know this? For one thing, I scour the shelves of bookstores. And everywhere I turn I see books for folks like me - folks who are mechanically or nutritionally or, most of all, technologically challenged.

(photo of scene from "Great Expectations")

"Hercules" tells the mythical story of a demigod trying to become a full god.

There never has been just one Inland Empire. The folks who live in and around San Bernardino, Calif., long have used that name to describe their inland desert domain. No doubt there are others. Yet tradition dictates those who hail from the Inland Northwest territory comprising Eastern Washington, southern British Columbia, North Idaho, western Montana and northeast Oregon tend to claim the name for their own.

Timothy Hutton, left, and Harvey Keitel are brothers in "City of Industry."

His performance so far has been overlooked by the award-dispensers. But Ian Holm pulls off the role of his career in Atom Egoyan's moving study of small-town tragedy "The Sweet Hereafter." As a lawyer both self-serving and the best advocate imaginable, Holm is loathesome and sympathetic at once. He wants to cure the world of injustice, but he is incapable of curing himself.

Sally Potter gets dance lessons from Pable Veron in "The Tango Lesson."

1. Gwyneth Paltrow arrived in time to support "Sliding Doors" director Peter Howitt for the film's world premiere, but left early enough to miss critics at the post-film party. Photo by Associated Press 2. Moviegoers at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, listen to introductions before Thursday's sold-out premiere of the film, "The Opposite of Sex." 3. Blethyn 4. Rockwell

As anyone who has ever attempted to write one knows, it takes a special talent to construct a short story. At its best, short fiction represents the best that literature has to offer. It's a form that, even with the various ups and downs of literary fashion, has never lost its audience. The fact of that is obvious from the annual collections that are published by Houghton Mifflin. It's also obvious from the expanded versions of short writing that the publishing house has developed over the years.