Never underestimate the power of incentive. When Manoochehr Sadeghi was in the first grade, his father promised to buy him a santur, the Persian hammered dulcimer, on the condition he excelled in his schoolwork. Read more...

What does a band that played music for “The Powerpuff Girls” have in common with a rock band whose bass player strums alongside Weezer’s Brian Bell in his spare time? Read more...

UCLA Live events postponed Two recent UCLA Live events, üBUNG by Victoria and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s dance performance have been postponed in the past week. Baryshnikov, who had never sustained a knee injury, suffered a degenerative tear of his left medial meniscus while rehearsing for his upcoming tour. Read more...

Denzel Washington is so often cast as the wronged good guy (“John Q,” “Glory,” “Malcolm X,” “The Hurricane”) that people were shocked when he played a corrupt police officer in “Training Day.” Washington received his second Oscar for his performance, but the truth is that the actor has had a long and successful career making movies of all genres, from romantic comedies (“The Preacher’s Wife”) to sports films (“Remember the Titans”). Read more...

Robert David Port couldn’t have known what he was getting into when he and a three-man crew began filming the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit in mid-2001. Read more...

International cultures collided, literally, on stage last Sunday at the Aratani/Japan American Theatre in Little Tokyo as the Art of Rice Traveling Theater performed their production about Asia’s essential crop. Read more...

Matty Nash, bandleader of the multi-sensory performance troupe The Mutaytor, says his group’s trademark is its ability to turn civilians into rock stars. He’s a believer in the romantic idea that the two are in fact mutually exclusive. Read more...