For Christoph Bull, UCLA organ professor and, this weekend, accompanist to the films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, sometimes silent movies are best left silent. Read more...

Readers of this column already know that Philip Seymour Hoffman will win the Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday night. He’s in a tight race with Heath Ledger, and though you can’t have too much of a good thing when it comes to acting performances, you can pick a winner. Read more...

The walls are covered with character stills, fliers and movie posters. Large wooden drawing desks dating back to the 1930s border the large classroom in Melnitz Hall; sprawled in the middle are more tables, splotted in every known color of paint. Read more...

His contemporaries often mocked French painter Gustave Courbet as an uncouth country bumpkin. Courbet’s exaggerated provincial accent, physical robustness and unwillingness to conform to the Parisian art scene set him apart as an outspoken outsider. Read more...

Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness “Fear is on Our Side” Secretly Canadian Records I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness seems poised for success: The Austin-based quintet already has one of the most recognizable names in indie music, two years of extensive touring and an EP produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniel under its belt. Read more...

Simon Joyner “Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999″ Jagjaguwar Records Below the title “Beautiful Losers: Singles and Compilation Tracks 1994-1999″ on the latest Simon Joyner album is a picture of a grand, effeminate bedroom in which sits a young man, unshaven and with tousled hair. Read more...

We don’t mean to brag, but we think we’ve got ’em right this time. After going 7 for 10 and then 8 for 10 in our Oscar picks of the past two years, we’re predicting this is the year we nail everything. Read more...