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...

Featured events: MUSIC: Emmylou Harris Better known to our generation as the back-up vocalist for Ryan Adams, Harris is a country legend. TuesDay, oct. 7 at 8:00 p.m. 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...

Aside from spending their formative years forming, childhood chums Tim Garrick and Lori Scarlett devoured gothic horror romance novels by the late V.C. Andrews and acted out the stories using puppet heads. 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...

Just as “School of Rock,” Richard Linklater’s newest flick gets off its feet and into its bubbly crowd-surf, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) intercepts a call from a top-tier private school that wants to offer his roommate a substitute teaching stint. Read more...