To a fan who has only encountered Animal Collective’s harmonious, mellowed-out studio recordings, the group’s raucous live show is overwhelming. Unlike merely listening to the brilliantly layered mellifluous sounds on their albums, the group’s live incarnation incorporates head-spinning visual and audio elements, as well as an unfettered tribal energy. Read more...

Jimi Hendrix jammed with the in-house bands. Janis Joplin downed her last bottle of Southern Comfort there before she died. It’s where The Doors had their monumental beginning. Read more...

As a array of contemporary films and TV shows like “Desperate Housewives” point out, nearly every family has its own secrets and lies meant to keep up appearances ““ a fact Tennessee Williams was all too familiar with when he wrote his play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1955. Read more...

A slightly demented cheerleader takes the stage. Heavy-metal wannabes, in a fit of inspiration, prop up lights, speakers and fog machines. And a woman, dressed in a gorilla suit, pantomimes as if she’s part of a children’s performance. Read more...

The opposite of war isn’t peace. It’s creation. In the case of “Rent,” war is the battle for love ““ and against the AIDS epidemic within a 1980s New York City Bohemia. Read more...

In 1951, Truman Capote sent the manuscript of his first novel, “Summer Crossing,” to Robert Linscott, his Random House editor at the time. He had written the book seven years earlier, in 1944, and had since achieved international fame with his first published novel, “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” Looking for a follow-up, Capote hoped he could edit the manuscript, originally written when he was 20 years old, but Linscott’s response to the book convinced him otherwise. Read more...

The scariest thing about senior year at UCLA is the realization that graduation is actually going to happen. And, judging from the recent attempts of my friends and fellow fourth-year students to act sophisticated, I realize that I’m not alone in my desire to be a little more adult. Read more...