If you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of years, you may not remember a time in the spring of 2012 when a literal rock star, which gained both national and international news coverage, was the center of media attention. This rock is none other than the infamous 340-ton granite boulder first discovered in December of 2006 at...

Besides being the first in their families to attend college, certain students may be on their way to becoming "smarter" than the people who raised them. The school year has just started, and whether you are a first generation college student or following the family tradition, we all reach that point of conscious adulthood sometime or another. Being able to...

Over the weekend the La Brea Tar Pits played host to the annual "Tarfest," a gathering of artists and musicians that provided visitors with a unique, outdoor experience. A relatively small festival nestled between the Page Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA), booths and exhibits were set up in a circular fashion along pathways, allowing attendees...

“As Above, So Below”, from the director of “Quarantine” (2008) and “Devil” (2010), John Erick Dowdle, has become one of my new favorite horror flicks. This is not to say that the film isn’t wrought with irrationality and unintentional comedic moments, but what is important is its sheer ability to entertain until its pretty phenomenal finish. Did you think less...

In their cabin hidden away in Ireland, the band members hold their gaze on their fearless leader outstretched in the living room, waiting for him to tell them to begin their motion of sounds again. The bass guitar half-strums a cord, the synthesiser bursts a spark, the drummer takes a swing, fingers on the keyboard strike down three notes, and...

The bombing raids have stopped, the only gunfire that has lit up the night sky in Gaza is the celebratory firings by Palestinians celebrating what is being seen as a victory for the Palestinian cause as a ceasefire with Israel is finally announced. After nearly 50 days of slaughter and war, as Israel bombed and partially invaded the besieged Strip,...

In this bloody Summer as Israel engages in yet another, terrifying invasion of Gaza, a certain film kept returning to my mind. It was Roman Polanski's 2002 Oscar-winner "The Pianist." The relevance of the film is uncanny in its tale of a people under siege and the consequences of violent resistance. The best known of the exiled director's work in...

Ask any Southern California native what they think of when they hear the words Dogtown, or Z-boys and the responses you get might vary. For a newer generation it may automatically bring up thoughts of Skateboarding, drops, vert-skating, surfing, ripping, shredding and the like. For Generation X, people born between the 1960s-1980s, it may spark a similar, but more aged,...

“The Kill Team”, while gruesome and shocking in visuals, only explores a very narrow scope of the broader picture director Dan Krauss, previously nominated for “The Death of Kevin Carter” (2004), is aiming to clarify. The horrifying story of the U. S. Army platoon of infantry soldiers that were reported in 2010 of killing Afghan civilians for sport is well...

Another great one has left us. For more than three decades, Robin Williams graced the film and TV screen with an assortment of unforgettable characters, voices and presences that will remain etched in our collective consciousness forever. Now he has passed away at the age of 63 of an apparent suicide. He joins Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a titan of...