Doug Martsch, singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for the rock group Built to Spill, talks to Mercury News reporter Mark de la Viña about the band’s unconventional approach to its music.

Horror film icon and “Night of the Living Dead” director George Romero talks to arts and entertainment reporter Mark de la Viña about “Diary of the Dead,” the rampant sadism in contemporary fright flicks and his professional start working on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” in the mid-’60s.