List-making season is nearing its end, with just about every music publication having weighed in now with its year-end best-of picks. (The major exception being the Pazz & Jop critic’s poll by the Village Voice, which never seems able to tabulate its votes until spring.) But despite this flood of information, it’s difficult to get an actual idea of which albums were heralded by critics as the Class of ’04. Read more...

It goes without saying that a band’s lead singer embarking on a solo tour featuring acoustic covers of Morrissey songs could be labeled self-indulgent. But Colin Meloy doesn’t mind. Read more...

With the dramatic blow of radiating, hypnotic drawings, hungry souls will not go hungry. Vibrant, splintered lollipop shades radiate outward from a central vertical stripe and strike with a meditative power. Read more...

Classes in costume design, playwriting and Thai Chi are not a part of the average freshman’s experience. But they are part of the “freshman experience,” a term coined to define the required curriculum for UCLA undergraduate theater students. Read more...

Ranging from respectful choir performances to “The O.C. Chrismukkah Mix,” holiday music is often hit-and-miss. For the faithful, though, hearing genuinely religious music can be a profound experience. Read more...

Turn a corner in Los Angeles, and it is hard not to find a starving actor, struggling filmmaker or unpublished writer. But for student filmmakers Darren Guttenberg and Jared Fryer, the Hollywood struggle has just become a small burden easily overcome. Read more...

It’s normal to leave a performance of “The Nutcracker” wanting to waltz to Tchaikovsky’s Grande Pas de Deux, but most renditions of this Christmas classic do not leave audiences hungry. Read more...