The advocacy of various beauty images and the fight against size discrimination is an honorable cause, but not very effective if it does not acknowledge that obesity is ultimately a health hazard. Obesity has been around for decades, just as discrimination based on size. In 1969, Bill Fabrey in New York had a bellyful of the prejudices and unjust treatments...

On Friday, Nov. 22, the Studio Stage at Santa Monica College felt like a private, darkened space as a small audience sat down in the small room and watched the SMC Musical Theatre Workshop perform a selection of classic musical numbers. It was indeed an intimate setting and audience members were fully immersed in the performances which took place in...

Rockin’ 'n’ rollin’ can be an understatement when describing just how busy Santa Monica College’s theatre arts department has been this year. With 14 faculty members and a goal of seven productions per year, it has been a fast-tracked year for the department. The year began with the Oscar Wilde Tragedy “Salome,” directed by department chair Perviz Sawoski, as well...

For James Martin, chair of the music department at Santa Monica College, the music program is only as strong as the success of its students. Looking back at the year 2013, Martin said that the applied music program has played a significant part in why the program is held in such high regard. "We're very proud in developing our applied...

With the sounds of Claude Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" filling the office, Judith Douglas, Santa Monica College's dance department chair, discussed a memorable 2013 and what is in store for the coming year."As a proud parent and as a proud department chair, I am very pleased with everything [the dancers] have achieved in such a short...

With winter around the corner, social media is already buzzing with countless announcements of spring and summer music festivals to come in 2014. Music festivals have become so popular in the last century that what once was a counterculture movement, music festivals are now evolved into more mainstream, inclusive events. A study by Nature Reviews Neuroscience shows that listening to...

In Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 film "Psycho" is a scene where Janet Leigh, the film's female lead, steps into the shower of a low-rent hotel room. As she bathes, a shadowy figure steps inside, opens the shower curtain and repeatedly slashes Leigh with a butcher knife. While the violence of the scene is eerie and visceral, what has truly helped...

Photography as physical endurance and dangerous adventure illuminated The Broad Stage on Thursday night when Paul Nicklen, one of National Geographic's most respected photographers, presented his work, a collection of memories gathered for 14 years in the polar region. Nicklen has traveled to the farthest, coldest regions of the earth and captured through his lens the enrapturing vistas and wildlife....

Cocooned within the intimacy of The Edye Second Space at Santa Monica College’s Broad Stage on Friday night, the audience heard the music of trumpet master Ron Meza and his jazz band Planet Afrobeat. “We’re going to get dangerous,” Meza said, as the band set up and prepared to play a selection of jazz classics and one original composition. Meza,...