This week’s cover (“Winter on Long Beach”) by Grant Haffner is intriguing, especially the subject matter and the artist’s signature style and tone. We can’t help but remember Haffner’s works that feature open road where vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines meet, and candy-stripe colors enhance the Magic Realism. We also can’t forget their themes of desolation, which are counterbalanced by the theatrical environment. As a film lover, this art critic recalls movies that evoke similar “on-the-road” themes that suggest desolation as well as alienation and isolation: consider Easy Rider and Into the Wild.