By Charly SHELTON Overpopulation will be the big problem that the next generation will have to deal with. Too many people taking up too few resources. How to combat this problem? Either have more resources, most of which are non-renewable, or use less per person. Make each ear of corn feed a dozen people, each […]
» Part 2 By Nestor CASTIGLIONE Shostakovich: The Gadfly (complete original score), Suite from The Counterplan (Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Mark Fitz-Gerald) [Naxos] – Another Shostakovich score makes a favorite pick of the year. This time it’s the world premiere recording of the complete original score to the 1957 Soviet film, “The Gadfly.” The suite compiled by the […]
By Susan JAMES “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is the ninth film to explore George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. Sadly, it is also the swan song for Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia as the actress died last December. For those who just can’t get enough of Lucasian mythology, Jedi mysticism and explosive star battles, this […]
By Charly SHELTON The winter holidays can be a big production, like a stage performance. Thanksgiving is the dress rehearsal – the family comes over to the house, there’s a dinner but no presents. It’s easy and a good warm up to the main event. Then Christmas arrives – opening night done up with all […]
By Nestor CASTIGLIONE The days grow shorter, the air (at least at night) turns crisp, and the stacks of CDs in my listening room grow taller. Winter is nearly here, its augurings pulling down the curtain on the year that is about to be closed definitively. What the next year will bring can only be […]
Joffrey Ballet principal dancers Jeraldine Mendoza (Sugar Plum Fairy) and Dylan Gutierrez (Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier) are preparing for three performances of the Los Angeles Youth Ballet world premiere of “The Nutcracker.” Tickets are on sale now for the Friday, Dec. 22 performance at 7 p.m., and for the Saturday, Dec. 23 performances at 2 […]
Here are the new shows opening in our theatres this month: “A Christmas Carol” a masterpiece about the redemptive and transformative power of love. It allows families to take a supremely theatrical journey and celebrate the transformative power of forgiveness during the holidays. Ebenezer Scrooge’s rebirth from miserly curmudgeon to the epitome of love […]
A little more than one year after receiving the holy blessing of Pope Francis in the Vatican City, the highly anticipated pre-apocalyptic drama “The Second Coming of Christ” is landing in Los Angeles theaters. The film follows the gripping yet inspirational journey of an atheist female scientist in a struggle with good and evil, who, […]
By Nestor CASTIGLIONE “The Jewel in the Lotus” was jazz multireedist Bennie Maupin’s first album as leader, having established himself as a sideman to Herbie Hancock. It quickly became regarded as a classic and one of the linchpins of the ECM Records catalog. Eclectic and dazzling, the album took the influences from Hancock’s Mwandishi and […]
By Charly SHELTON With Halloween behind us, one may think that the time for witches, ghosts and dark, foreboding castles is also behind us. But in the Wizarding World, they are present every day. And as Christmas draws near, the witches are donning scarves and the house ghosts are dancing at the Yule ball in […]