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Author Maxine Hong Kingston visited UCLA last week, reading excerpts from her writings, including her newest memoir, “I Love a Broad Margin to My Life.” Kingston is a professor emeritus of literature at UC Berkeley and a winner of the National Book Award for her novel “China Men.” Kingston’s work focuses on gender identity and ethnicity. Host Andrea Wang spoke with her over the phone this weekend. Hear Kingston read an excerpt from her book here. [8:02]

After spending the weekend in Arizona covering UCLA basketball, sports editor Sam Strong gives some in-depth analysis on the men’s games against Arizona and ASU. Also, Sam and Eli Smukler talk college basketball with guest Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports.

Overtime with Daily Bruin Sports airs Mondays at 6:30 p.m. on UCLAradio.com.

Visit our broadcast archive or subscribe to our podcast.

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Love, lies and sex: three things that seem to make or break a relationship. Yet, behind it all, it’s really people who create their own happiness as well as their own heartache with the choices they make.

“Closer” examines this idea in depth with the intertwining relationships of four characters, Anna, Dan, Alice and Larry. The play begins with an obituary writer Dan (played by Matthew Oliva) flirting with Alice (played by Fabianne Therese) in a hospital waiting room as they wait for a doctor to attend to Alice’s leg wound. Fast-forward two years later, and Dan tries to begin a relationship with photographer Anna (played by Stefanie Anne Chapman) despite still being involved with Alice.

Much of this play is driven by its story and by the actors themselves. To put the spotlight on the performers, the play’s props are sparse. Few furniture decorate the stage, and only the bare essentials such as chairs, a camera and champagne glasses, are given to the actors to use. Without any real material distractions, the audience attention is forced to focus solely on the actors and the emotions they play out on stage.

Scoop Dreams columnist Eli Smukler checks in with this week’s Pac-10 men’s basketball Power Rankings (you can find last week’s rankings here):

1. No. 21 Arizona (18-4, 7-2 Pac-10)

Even though Arizona lost to Washington two weeks ago, the Wildcats deserve this spot for how they played this week, handily beating both L.A. schools. Derrick Williams is the Pac-10’s best player and he has his team playing like they are, too.

For those who can’t make it an hour into the day without their morning coffee, here is the ultimate caffeine fix. On Feb. 1, Starbucks will release its new 31-ounce beverage size, the Trenta, in 14 select states, including California.

According to the company’s website, 60 percent of Starbucks’ iced tea customers currently
order the largest size available, the 24-ounce Venti. The Trenta, which is available for Starbucks
iced coffee and Tazo iced teas, provides seven more ounces of refreshment than the Venti and
costs 50 cents more.

It’s hard enough to sift through the rows of tiny blue text on the dineLA website, hoping to find a gem amongst the long list of L.A. eateries. Lunch or dinner, French, Italian, Japanese … oh my, choosing isn’t easy.

While my taste buds know exactly what they want, I am a terribly indecisive person. Come restaurant week, my Internet browser is inundated with tabs. I’m reading all sorts of reviews and blog posts, scrutinizing food photos, counting stars. Valuable time spent on research should be rewarded with positive dining experiences.

But it’s never that simple. From the steps it takes to get you from the computer monitor to the restaurant table, countless things can go wrong. And looking back on previous experiences, there are a few things I wish I knew.

It seems strange now, but it wasn’t always obvious that Peter Sellers was the star of the “Pink Panther” series.