Ask us about the arts

You know the feeling: You’re watching a movie you loved 20 years ago and wonder, all of a sudden, what happened to the actor who played that brilliant bit part.

Someone mentions “alt-country” in a conversation about music, and you realize you don’t know the difference between alt-country and regular country. You find yourself staring at that weird contraption each time you visit the theater, but you can’t say for the life of you what it actually does.

In all three cases, we can help. Or at least we hope we can.

To start off 2014, Times Community News is introducing a new recurring feature: a column in which we do our best to answer your burning questions about the arts. We can’t say it will be a weekly offering, but we’ll check your inquiries as they come in, and if the question is appropriate, and we can find an answer, we’ll address it in a brief or even a full-length story.

There’s a precedent for this kind of coverage, of course. We’ve all seen those “Where Are They Now?” features in assorted media. The late Roger Ebert wrote a “Movie Answer Man” column for years to clear up myths and provide insider information about the film world.

The title of our column will be “Did You Ever Wonder?” And we’re eager to know what the residents of Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Laguna Beach are wondering about.

To submit a question, email michael.miller@latimes.com and put “Did You Ever Wonder?” in the subject line. And while we don’t want the guidelines to be too rigid, we’d prefer questions that are local in nature — meaning that if you’re trying to pinpoint a cast member you saw in Chicago a decade ago, we’re probably not the best resource.

That said, we look forward to your challenges. Let’s make 2014 a year of revelations!