Wow and Flutter

Spurred by out-of-work cooking enthusiasts seeking training for food industry jobs and by foodies brushing up on their skills so they can eat well without paying restaurant prices, sales are starting to recover — even bouncing to pre-recession levels.

“People are taking advantage of the economic downturn and looking to change careers,” said Eric Crowley, who with his wife, Jennie Shields Crowley, owns Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom in Los Angeles.

(via Culinary schools rebound from recessionary slump — latimes.com)

Recycling centers across California are closing, and scores of troubled youths are being tossed from “green” jobs onto unemployment rolls in the wake of Sacramento’s raid on bottle deposit funds. California’s recycling treasury, filled by consumers’ nickel and dime deposits on drink containers, had hummed along successfully for two decades until state officials left it nearly bankrupt after taking $451 million out to help balance the budget.

(via Recycling centers close, eliminating ‘green’ jobs — latimes.com)

Carolina Lightcap, the senior vice president and chief creative officer of Disney Channels Latin America, has been named president of Disney Channels Worldwide — an announcement that underscores the global nature of the network.

(via Disney Channel names Carolina Lightcap as president | Company Town | Los Angeles Times)

It’s not that rock or rap no longer speak to the mainstream; Eminem’s album rather quietly became one of the year’s bestsellers, as did the latest from Kings of Leon, who were nominated for artist of the year yet did not perform Sunday evening.

But pop’s current mood — glamorous and emotionally open, category-busting and very fluid — reflects qualities associated with the feminine. Authenticity and rawness, leather jackets and guitars and freestyle rhymes still have their allure, but they’re overwhelmed by costume, dance, spectacular singing and highly stylized, melodramatic confession.

(via Ladies’ night at the AMAs | Pop & Hiss | Los Angeles Times)

Recipe: Petto di pollo con Gorgonzola at La Finestra — latimes.com

A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation’s largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

(via Movie popcorn still a nutritional horror, study finds — latimes.com)