Richard Curtis’ directorial debut easily could be renamed “Bridget Jones’ Diary about Four Weddings and a Funeral in Notting Hill” and reaffirms Curtis’ title as the go-to guy for British romantic comedies. Read more...

When I went home to San Diego a few weekends ago, the sky literally seemed to be falling. Fires raged just a few miles from my house, and looking up revealed only a fog of smoke, a glowing red ball that used to be the sun and a steady stream of falling ash. Read more...

In the strange world of David Rees, becoming as cool as the invincible master Karate Snoopy is the ultimate goal for all karate disciples. Besides practicing with each other, these martial arts students also fight Bruce Lee style against their imaginary selves, their circulatory systems and, occasionally, their own fingerprints. Read more...

The soft tick of a 70-year-old projector comes from upstairs in the New Beverly Theater. Up in the projector room, reel after reel of film lie in stacks: everything from “Things to do in Denver “¦” to “X-Men.” The room is cluttered with canisters, oversized red letters for the marquee and 30-year-old copies of Playboy magazine. Read more...

I’m pretty sure it was Aristotle who first wrote that every story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s a seemingly simple concept, to be sure, but also a frequently forgotten one. Read more...

Complete silence. A tall ship is at sea on a windless night. Ever so slowly, the sounds of a gentle breeze and a creaking bow can be heard. Read more...

Sunday afternoon, a series of on-campus events paying tribute to the Maquiladores murders of Juarez came to a close with a lecture introducing artist Veronica Castillo’s altarpiece “Lamento por las Mujeres de Juarez (Elegy for the Women of Juarez).” More than 300 women in Mexico have been murdered over the past 10 years in what remains an unsolved mystery. Read more...