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Newsletter: Great Reads: Dying sequoias, Tarantino and small town noir

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Hey there. I'm Kari Howard, and I edit the Great Reads (a.k.a. Column Ones) for the Los Angeles Times.

Two of my biggest loves are narrative journalism and music, and I'm lucky that my days are filled with both: When reading the stories, I get inspired by songs I think fit the article's theme — a soundtrack.

Here are the Great Reads (and some lowercase great reads) of the past week, plus their soundtracks.

They've lived for thousands of years. Could the drought kill our sequoias?

I'm just going to share in full my favorite section of Tom Curwen's story about the drought and California's magnificent sequoias, which comes about halfway into the piece. Everything about it delights me: "At the top of Kong, Ambrose poked his head above the canopy, a complex of massive branches supporting a dense thatch of foliage and lichen. He wanted to take a panorama shot with his phone. For a climber, the crown of a sequoia is a magical world that has only been studied in the last 30 years. Scientists say that it is as rich in life as an undersea garden and as difficult to reach. Around Kong's base lay ropes, carabiners, hooks, ascenders and daisy chains that Baxter and Ambrose use for their ascents. A hunting crossbow leaned against a fallen tree. Preparation that afternoon began with Ambrose's first shot and a flat-tipped arrow spooling out a gossamer of fishing line, 200 feet up and over a branch. After replacing the monofilament with a climbing rope, he stepped into the saddle, a utility belt with foot straps. Like an inchworm, he pushed and pulled his way up the line."

Anthony Ambrose measures the diameter of a sequoia after rigging it for climbing to conduct drought research in Sequoia National Park. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

The soundtrack: "Pine Trees," by Jake Bugg. I might have already raved about Bugg in a previous newsletter. He released his first album when he was still a teenager, but the songs were so accomplished you never would have known it. Oh, and that soaring Orbison voice! This song is from his second album, which suffers a bit from the sophomore slump, but there are still some lovely songs on it (this one, "Simple Pleasures" and "A Song About Love" among them).

The tweeting chief of a Kenyan village

I love how Robyn Dixon wrote this story about the chief of a Kenyan village who keeps residents up with all the local happenings via Twitter. (They pronounce it "Too-weeter," she writes, and to them, it's the chief's personal messaging system, delivered right to their phones, many times a day.) She interspersed scenes of the sleepy life in the village with italicized tweets from the chief, so it has a Greek chorus feel to it. Amid the minutiae of village life, he inserts hearty daily homilies. Too often, we get frustrated by the difficulties. But you have to realize, you can't have a harvest without a few weeds. And, at times, homespun advice. If an animal can swallow you, don't try to kiss it. (I think those are words to live by, no matter where you live, and no matter if the animal is more metaphorical than real.)

Chief Francis Kariuki has won plaudits around Kenya for his use of Twitter. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)

The soundtrack: "Communication," by Bobby Womack. Such a good song — funk-with-a-message at its best. I have a Quentin Tarantino thing going on this week (see the next soundtrack), because I had Womack's "Across 110th Street," which was used in the opening credits of "Jackie Brown," on repeat.

Jerry Brown vs. the Mod Squad: The battle over climate change

Actually, Jerry Brown in his dating-Linda-Ronstadt era, circa 1970, kind of looked like a member of the old TV series "The Mod Squad." But the Mod Squad in question here is a bloc of moderate Democrats in the Legislature. They're led by "Valleycrat" Henry Perea, who may determine the fate of the sweeping climate-change package being championed by Gov. Brown. Perea is liberal on social issues but has been accused of being pro-business on economic ones. In this sophisticated profile by Melanie Mason, she writes that he likes to quote a maxim picked up from a professor at Harvard University, where he once took a leadership course, to sum up his political philosophy: "True political leadership is the ability to disappoint your friends at a rate that they can absorb."

Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, a moderate Democrat from the Central Valley. (Tomas Ovalle)

The soundtrack: "Stuck in the Middle with You," Stealers Wheel. Yes, you're picturing the torture scene in "Reservoir Dogs," aren't you? Quentin Tarantino does some of the best soundtracks out there, and I wasn't surprised to read this from him: "One of the things I do when I am starting a movie, when I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie." Swoon.

Anyone want a mealworm lollipop?

They're rich in protein, amino acids and vitamins and minerals like potassium and iron. They have less fat and cholesterol than beef. And they're also considered an environmentally friendly source of protein because they can be raised on a fraction of the land and water required for traditional livestock, like cattle. Sound perfect? Well, there's one sticking point (note that "sticking" has the word "ick" in it): The "animals" I'm talking about are mealworms and their larger, feistier (gulp) cousins, superworms. We talk to some of the people who are bringing insects to Americans' dinner tables. Fun facts about mealworms: They aren’t actually worms at all — they’re the larval forms of two species of darkling beetles. (See, don't you feel better about them now?) And their flavor, when toasted, is often described as being nutty and crispy, akin to roasted pecans or fried pork rinds.

Shipping supervisor Raul Nieves scoops up a container of live "Superworm" brand giant mealworms that are shipped throughout North America for people to eat. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

The soundtrack: "Do You Like Worms (Roll Plymouth Rock)," by the Beach Boys. From the almost-mythical "Smile" sessions, the recordings made after the brilliant "Pet Sounds." You can hear Brian Wilson getting even more experimental and trippy here, with some songs that are pure genius and some that are a bit hard to listen to. (I confess to not loving "Vega-Tables.")

What I'm reading online

The title of the project grabbed me: "Small Town Noir". And the back story is great: Writer Diarmid Mogg came across a cache of midcentury mug shots from the small town of New Castle, Pa., in a Scottish antiques store. (How strange is that?) He was so fascinated with the photos, he started tracking down and buying more of them. Then he began to report their stories — what happened next after that moment of mostly petty crime and unflattering photograph? He knows his project would be more sexy if the people in the mug shots were in glamorous New York, or if they were mob hoodlums. But, he writes, "The thing that captured my attention about the mug shots and New Castle was precisely the fact that the people were unknown and lived ordinary lives, and that the town had slipped from the world’s thoughts."

What's on my bedside table

I have to admit I've never read any of the Harry Potter books, although they're by all accounts great reads. But now I'm in the middle of the first detective book J.K. Rowling wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. She tries a bit too hard with some of the writing in "The Cuckoo's Calling," but Rowling knows how to write a plot. I'm halfway through, and figure that there are about six red herrings already — but I don't know the killer yet. (I suppose it's unfair of me to compare her to another talented writer who also lives in Scotland, who also is a woman, and who also has taken a turn on the detective genre dance floor: Kate Atkinson. If you haven't read either her Jackson Brodie series or her "serious" fiction, I can't recommend her enough.)

What's on my turntable

Although I spend most of my time listening with headphones to Spotify, sometimes I want to hear the needle touching down on vinyl. That's why I have a turntable in my office — and two at home (one inside, and a battery-powered one outside when the weather's fine — which it usually is in Southern California). This week's vinyl: "Porgy and Bess," by Miles Davis. This album has my favorite cover of all time. It shows the cropped midsection of a man in a white shirt (presumably Davis) holding a trumpet. A woman sitting next to him, her knees crossed, reaches out for the trumpet. Is she trying to take it away from him and get his attention for once? Or is she handing it to him? I think the former. It's like a short story in one elliptical scene. Oh, and the album itself? Tremendous. (Especially "I Loves You, Porgy.")

Want to chat? Have a great idea for a Great Read? I'm @karihow on Twitter and kari.howard@latimes.com on email.

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