With its masterful combination of melodic hooks, guitar crunch and popish keyboards, the rock band The Pale is finally achieving well-deserved success and popularity. And refreshingly, the band is not jaded. Read more...

Ani DiFranco “Educated Guess” Righteous Babe For those who have yet to be won over by Ani DiFranco’s unapologetic lyrics and stabbingly melodic voice, here’s your 21st chance to realize the woman has too much creativity to ever even want to sound like anybody else. Read more...

“Summertime,” now playing at Macgowan Little Theatre through Feb. 7, is the quintessential Charles Mee concoction. One part piña colada and two parts bordering-psychotic fever dream, the maverick playwright’s kinky-sexy tribute to love and the power of passion is unapologetic and relentless in the way it peels away at each layer of the mystery of what it is to feel and live with an utmost fullness of being. Read more...

Among the inventors of the tribute album, UCLA artist-in-residence Hal Willner knew what to expect from a live equivalent. “Before any goddamn critic says it ““ yes, the best thing is the original, which was last night “¦ AND WE KNOW THAT! Read more...

When life handed him lemons, Arnold Mesches did one better than make lemonade ““ he made “contemporary illuminated manuscripts.” The octogenarian artist, who was the subject of extensive surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 27 years, managed to acquire the secret files of his life and transform them into art. Read more...

After a half-hour sandwiched between strangers in the crowded Viper Room, Rich Robinson and his band finally took the stage. With the Black Crowes on hiatus, Robinson has begun a solo project ““ a guitar-driven quartet with a keyboardist that plays familiar-sounding classic rock. Read more...

“Giselle” has got a brand new bag. On Sunday, UCLA’s Theater Underground, an independent, student-run organization that provides the means to stage student productions, presents a modernized rendition of the 163-year-old ballet “Giselle,” infusing the classical with contemporary dance styles and music. Read more...