Culture Pop Series Vh1 World

Rodrigo y Gabriela: Starting the week off right are Rodrigo y Gabriela, a pair of acoustic guitarists from Mexico. Though they started out in heavy metal, their band Tierra Acida never broke into the big time, so they branched into other styles, including flamenco, bossa nova and Mexican folk. Still, it took a move to Dublin, where they became street buskers, for their combination of intensity and superb fingerwork to capture deserved attention. 8 p.m. Monday, Aladdin Theater, 3017 S.E. Milwaukie Ave.; $20 advance from Ticketmaster, 503-224-4400. Visit their web site here.

Stomach-churning reality? 2 VH1 gurus beg to differ

HOLLYWOOD - The LA mansion appeared serene from the outside - a stark contrast to the controlled chaos within. Charm School was in session.

Technicians paraded around wires, production equipment and heavy lights. In one cramped space, two producers huddled in front of TV monitors, looking at several women in custom "schoolgirl" uniforms.

Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego gazed at a live picture transmitted from another room where an etiquette class was being conducted. When one camera zoomed in on a frowning "pupil" with a history of troubled relationships, they exchanged triumphant glances. .

Why we must address both economics and values

From the 1970s through the mid-1990s, poverty policy was among the nastiest battlefields in the national culture war. Left and right slugged it out over why people were poor and how (or whether) to help them. Conservatives generally enjoyed the upper hand in these debates by focusing on individual-level causes of poverty, like family breakdown, drug addiction, and poor work habits -- pathologies said to be enabled by government largesse. This story line struck a chord with the American public, helping ensure the demise of the federal welfare entitlement and the introduction of strict work requirements in 1996.

But since then, a structural understanding of poverty has come back in vogue, fueled by more awareness of globalization and dead-end jobs. Popular books like Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and Beth Shulman's The Betrayal of Work have drawn a fresh picture of the poor -- as mostly hardworking Americans who can't make ends meet through no fault of their own.

Let pop culture be a stepping-off point to an invaluable past

I don't know why, but it was really important to me that my children watch the Sharks' and Jets' playground dance-off in West Side Story. I guess I wanted them to know where Michael Jackson got the idea for Beat It.

And I wanted my daughter to see Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet, too, if she was going to see Claire Danes' 1996 version. I wanted her to see the huge role that costumes alone can play in a movie.

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Phil Harrison Answers Your Questions

Right around this time last month, we asked for your questions to pass on to President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison. With the launch of the PlayStation 3 console in Europe, Mr. Harrison has had kind of a full month. He still found us the time to answer your questions, and today we have them to read. Below are his very thorough responses to the questions you posed, ranging in subject from the European delay to the public perception of SCEA. Make sure to give them a look, and many thanks again to Mr. Harrison for his time. .