NEW YORK, July 7, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- This week's Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition will report on a broad range of informative business and lifestyle stories written by the Journal's award winning reporters. The week's Weekend Edition will be available via home delivery and on newsstands on July 8-9.
The Journal's Pursuits section puts the focus on leisure-time decisions: what to see, what to buy, what to read, what to eat, what to watch, where to go and how to get there. Entertainment. Style. Food. Travel. Sports. And from the Journal's opinion staff, Books and Leisure & Arts. Concise and to the point, Pursuits is all about engaging readers with great ideas that relate to a wide variety of passions pertaining to their lifestyle. Loaded with lists, picks and reliable advice, Pursuits promises to place an intelligent, inspiring focus on the best of the best.
Highlights of this week's Pursuits include the following stories:
Cover Stories:
-- How tourism is taking off in the former Soviet Bloc, but
not in Russia, where high prices, red tape and lack of
infrastructure are strangling tourism.
-- Sampling two new entries in Las Vegas's high-end dining
sweepstakes, from French chefs Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon.
Our Picks
-- Actress/comedian Amy Sedaris on her favorite comedic
performances from movies, TV and standup shows, all
available on DVD.
-- On viral video sites like YouTube.com, alongside amateur
videos of goofy stunts, you'll now find a surprising number
of hard-to-find art-film shorts, including some considered
cinematic gems, from a 1934 surrealist film by Orson Welles
and William Vance to a 1979 student film by Pixar's John
Lasseter to 1969 art videos by Nam June Paik. A look at
the art films showing up on viral video sites and at what
laws govern the posting of these films.
-- Small music labels specializing in rare reissues are
reissuing some little-known funk music gems this summer,
some of which have been selling for hundreds of dollars as
collectors' items. We look at collections coming out this
summer, ranging from a compilation of soul and funk music
recorded in Toronto in the 1960s and '70s to a collection
of recordings of the Kashmere Stage Band, an unlikely
high-school band from Houston that produced eight legendary
funk albums between 1968 and 1978.
Entertainment & Culture
-- Joe considers what makes a movie actor's voice unmistakable,
both in the golden age (Lionel Barrymore, Cary Grant,
Orson Welles) and today (Joey Lauren Adams, Jeff Goldblum,
Morgan Freeman).
Style
-- In recent years, Japanese denim has been a key
distinguishing point between low-end and premium denim-its
rich blue color and softer hand have made it popular
among makers of $200 jeans from 7 For All Mankind to
Earnest Sewn. Now, however, Chinese manufacturers of denim
are starting to copy Japanese denim more closely and are
churning out fabrics that are soft and often close in
color to Japanese versions. This is starting to pop up a
lot in mid-price jeans-in the $50 to $100 range.
-- Ray Smith shops for men's accessories with Jack Spade
designer Andy Spade.
Cooking & Dining
-- Chefs Bob and David Kinkead of Sibling Rivalry in Boston
offer dueling cheeseburger recipes, one with chilies,
jack cheese and chipotle-lime mayonnaise and one with
pancetta and Boursin cheese.
Sports
-- The Bandon Dunes golf resort, on the southern Oregon
coast, is rugged, remote and rainy-as well as expensive.
So why is it revered by duffers across the country as the
ultimate golf-trip destination? Guest columnist Richard
Turner looks at this cultural ritual and reviews the course.
-- Faced with the undeniable reality that the U.S. is fading
from the world tennis map-especially on the women's
side-the sport's leaders at all levels are making wholesale
changes to revive the sport domestically.
Leisure & Arts
-- The noted Monet scholar delves into the cycle of Monet
waterlily paintings housed in the newly renovated
Orangerie in Paris.
-- Eric explores one of the most popular and common cocktails,
the gin and tonic.
-- Jay Greenberg, 14, is the first prodigy composer who will
have grown up in the media age. He was featured on
"60 Minutes" and has been signed by Sony and ICM, and his
first recording is coming out in a couple of months.
Books
-- "The Long Tail," a provocative but frustrating book by
Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson about the re-ordering
of popular culture, posits that technology is not just
accelerating the delivery of traditional pop culture but
influencing what is being consumed. He calls this
phenomenon "the long tail."
-- The novelist chooses the five best novellas, including
Edith Wharton's "Madame de Trevmes," Henry James's "The
Author of Beltraffio" and Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait
of Mr. WH."
-- Seth Mnookin's 433-page "Feeding the Monster" makes us
wonder what all the fuss is about-the fuss, as in the
publisher's "embargo" on writing about the book until
All-Star Game festivities begin. Embargo or no embargo,
any fool could figure out what "Feeding the Monster" was
about: how the Sox finally won the Series and What That
Said About the American Character.
Editor's Note: WSJ Weekend Edition reporters are available to discuss these topics.
About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (www.dowjones.com), is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of nearly 2.1 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 31 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, the Journal seeks to help its readers succeed by providing essential and relevant information, presented accurately and fairly, from an authoritative and trusted source. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 600 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with total circulation of 2.7 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. In 2006, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the seventh consecutive year.
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