Flash back to the NBA in 2004: The Los Angeles Lakers have just won the Western Conference Finals. Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and the rest of the team have disappeared from the crowds and returned to the locker room to congratulate each other. Read more...

If I had to choose one word to describe my experience at Coachella last year, it would definitely be “absolutely miserable.” It may have had something to do with the oppressive heat. Read more...

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Center Theater Group Feb. 6 through March 18 Few actresses receive 30 seconds of applause upon taking the stage. An even smaller number are applauded for opening a play by shouting “Jesus H. Read more...

Chamber music has long served as the more intimate alternative to the expansive arrangements of orchestral concerts and the individual expressiveness of solo performances. It also has a long history of collaboration between professionals and amateurs. Read more...

What would happen if a movie director were given free reign inside a film vault, with thousands upon thousands of titles? What would he choose? What would he say? Read more...

The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible” Merge Records Let’s start with the things that “Neon Bible” is not: a world-beating career album; an intensely personal look inward; dramatic without a “melo” preface. Read more...

Air “Pocket Symphony” Astralwerks Records Air’s music is exactly what the band’s name connotes: ethereal and breathy, creating something of a dreamland within itself. While in the past that tendency toward dreaminess proved wholly enjoyable, it’s a different story on Air’s fourth album, “Pocket Symphony.” The French duo, comprised of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, have put together tracks for “Pocket Symphony” which nestle under a darker and more dramatic cloud than much of their previous work. Read more...