The first time Michael Alden saw the music video for his group’s country Billboard chart single, he was in Dykstra Hall. Alden, a third-year music student, along with his sisters, identical twins Lauren Mills and Dana Burke, who graduated from UCLA in 2002, make up Malibu Storm ““ a country group whose success has snowballed in the past few months. Read more...

Reading music reviews can get tiresome for me. All too often, reviews of the same album will use identical angles and language, and, over time, reviews by a specific publication start to look interchangeable (e.g. Read more...

In a world obsessed with photography and its technology, UCLA’s Hammer Museum is now presenting an exhibition showing the revival of representational painting called “The Undiscovered Country.” While many have forgotten or ignored painting as an adequate means to depict reality since the popularization of photography, the Hammer Museum hopes to dispel such thoughts by displaying works representing modern reality in ways photography can’t. Read more...

In one of the epic moments in “Spider-Man 2,” Doctor Octopus reaches skyward and proclaims, “The power of the sun… in the palm of my hand!” The Apple iPod may not be able to create a self-sustaining fusion reaction, but it is equally miraculous nonetheless. Read more...

Despite significant progress, the state of Korean Americans in cinema has a long way to go. On Oct. 1, the Los Angeles Korean International Film Festival continues at USC’s Lucas Hall. Read more...

To discover the next frontier in digital filmmaking, one needn’t venture far ““ just take a look at your cellular phone. While plastic dinosaurs, yodeling custard, and garage bands may not seem like standard entertainment fare, Juliette Deinum, a UCLA alumna and cofounder of the “World’s Smallest Film Festival,” expects this new medium to explode in the United States as it has already in Asia and Europe. Read more...

Boasting a history as old and illustrious as that of Hollywood, it’s a shame that Mexican cinema has been in a funk since the mid-1950s. With the exception of some noteworthy peaks in the ’70s and early ’90s, south-of-the-border cinema rode through most of the second half of last century on trite themes like cowboys, slapstick comedies and masked wrestlers. Read more...