Reading a newspaper in January 2006, one feels a tragic sense of deja vu. Stories of violent insurgencies, military operations and ceaselessly rising body counts are reported with such regularity that a person can often find it difficult to distinguish one day’s news from the last. Read more...

The Golden Globes have always been the most amusing televised awards show for me. Maybe it’s because the Globes are handed out in a dinner party environment, leading to an increased chance for drunken acceptance speeches, or maybe it’s that every year some young girl is selected to be “Ms. Read more...

Two hundred fifty years ago, one of the greatest figures in the history of Western civilization was born. UCLA Live and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra have plans to celebrate that birth in a way unlike anything this country has seen. Read more...

One interesting part of winter break is poking around one’s old room and finding things from the past. Typically, I find old books and pictures, along with Post-it notes on which I used to write down things that struck me as clever (like trying to phonetically transcribe “awesome guitar riffs,” most of which turn out to have been bass lines). Read more...

Model. Actress. The face of Air Madagascar. Somehow adding “local independent musician” to that list doesn’t seem to fit, but singer/songwriter Maylin Pultar is full of surprises. Read more...

When the calendar rolls over into a new year, it’s not only a reminder that pop culture is continually changing, it gives us a chance to reflect on trends that were big the year before and make predictions for the year to come. Read more...

By Matthew Milman I’m the closest thing to a perfect stranger society will allow children in the legal care of. Still, there’s something ironic about writing my own name on a long, milky chalkboard in a classroom full of hollering students. Read more...