Without question or debate, Los Angeles has the best movie theaters of any city in the world. I’m not even considering the countless home theaters of incredibly rich people in the entertainment industry, which typically combine the quality of theatrical image and sound with the luxury of getting to watch the product while sprawled out on your couch. Read more...

Nine-year-old Will Magid had a trumpet and dream: to play like his idol Louis Armstrong. About 10 years later, with his friends Dan Marschak on keyboards and Aaron Leibowitz on saxophone, Magid would form The Goop with one mission in mind ““ to make instrumental jazz music understandable and enjoyable for the masses. Read more...

The School of Theater, Film and Television will satiate the appetites of theatergoers with its upcoming surfeit of three performances, onstage in June. Starting with the Coppola One-Act Marathon, film and theater graduate students serve up a palatable course of four original works, presented as staged readings in two double-bills. Read more...

No one could accuse artist Robert Rauschenberg of being out of touch with American life. Viewing Rauschenberg’s 70 pieces currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art is at times like stepping into the 1950s, with the exhibit’s liberal use of newspapers, neckties, Coca-Cola bottles, baseballs and even pin-up girls cut from magazines. Read more...

It’s almost June, and you know what that means: time for a mid-year top-10 albums list. Last year started off with a bang, with most of my favorite albums of the year (Andrew Bird, Okkervil River, The National) coming out early. Read more...

Santa Barbara transplant Ross Flournoy cautiously maneuvers his way down Wilshire Boulevard’s rush hour traffic in true Los Angeles fashion: on a cell phone. However, the band he fronts, The Brokedown, defies many typical L.A. Read more...

Regina Spektor “Begin To Hope” SIRE RECORDS Regina Spektor is that weird girl at your fifth-grade sleepover ““ shamelessly quirky and completely charming. Except that instead of lip-syncing into a hairbrush for her friends, she is singing pop songs she wrote herself for whoever is bold enough to listen. Read more...