Cover: Love Shackles
Stephen Kessler writes that our culturally prescribed goals of love, couplehood and happiness seem to wreak more havoc than they're worth.

News: Food Fighter
A Palo Alto radio-host discovers that beating anorexia is about shedding the dominant culture.

Info Revolution: Juneteenth remembers that in the days before the info superhighway, there was the frontage road.

Public Eye: George Shirakawa Jr. on a mission from God.

Polis Report: San Jose's "Aunt Kay" adivses spanking for naughty husbands.

Myth Behaving: They've been cribbing from fairy tales, history, even Victor Hugo novels. Now the Disney Imagineers tackle the muscle-bound Hercules. Richard von Busack reports from Mt. Olympus.

Cage of Miracles: Nicolas Cage swings from Oscar seriousness to summer-action mayhem with a unique grace.

Farewell to Narrative: Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis explores a world in which word and meaning are absurdly divorced.

Hit or Bliss: Terence Stamp camps as sex therapist in Bliss.

Mideast Sights: A feminist undercurrent informs the selections at the Arab Film Festival.

Apple in Agony: Love-tortured Fiona's not the only 19-year-old with something to say; Lauren Hoffman also knows what it means to be young.

All That Klezmer: Two new CDs showcase the diverse styles and influences that drive modern klezmer music.

Mexican Baroque: Chanticleer choir revives an 18th-century church service.

Beat Street: 'Bitch' singer Brooks crashes local show.

Local Heroes: Willow Glen hits the sauce--marinara sauce, that is--at Fratello's.

Bargain Bites: A short drive down El Camino Real can put diners in a Lone Star state of mind.

Pynchon's Line Dance: Mason & Dixon is a giant creation myth of an America divvied up and parceled out by straight and narrow minds.