As viewers tune in to watch the season finale of “American Idol” tonight, composer Vic Mizzy will be reminiscing about singers past. Mizzy and partner Irving Taylor appeared on a similar show called “Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour” almost 60 years ago. Read more...

Shoveling horse manure in Los Feliz does not typically serve as a gateway into movie stardom, unless your name is Tab Hunter, the Warner Bros.’ strategically devised heartthrob of the 1950s. Read more...

Ska may be dead, but its fans are refusing to accept the fact. On Friday, the Aquabats and Streetlight Manifesto performed at the El Rey Theatre. Read more...

The annual ritual of television networks announcing their prime-time line-ups reminds me of drafting my fantasy baseball team. There are many similarities: roundtable discussions, heated bidding wars, and most importantly, the smug grins everyone wears upon the completion of it all. Read more...

During the opening credits of Ron Howard’s by-the-book adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code,” words appear on the screen in a very simple manner. Instead of materializing the cryptic subject matter of Dan Brown’s thriller into an opening sequence that has words and numbers flashing everywhere to eventually reveal their hidden meanings, Howard simply offers the necessary information and crisply moves on. Read more...

They’re back. They’re in black. But they’re not about to rock. In fact, the music the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will play this weekend is quite a bit more sophisticated than that of AC/DC. Read more...

“The show must go on” is a common motto underlying any kind of performance art, and that saying is especially true this year for the seventh annual Lotus Steps, a production by the UCLA Chinese Cultural Dance Club. Read more...