I’ve really got to hand it to Hideki Matsui. For a professional baseball player, he has pretty respectable musical taste. The New York Yankee outfielder’s favorites include The Who, Lenny Kravitz and the Beatles. Read more...

Frequenters of the Sunset Strip expect to find their live bands at exclusive clubs, not jamming for fans at the local record store. But the latter is often the scene at Sea Level Records, an independent music store owned and operated by Tod Clifford since 2002. Read more...

Celebrity activism has long been a part of American culture. From Jane Fonda’s appearance with the Viet Cong in 1971 to Kanye West’s televised rant on the president’s disaffection for black people, the famous have long embraced the role of aspiring world changer. Read more...

At first glance, a flock of Canadian geese, Lord Byron’s daughter and a terrorist attack on a train carrying nuclear waste don’t appear to have much in common. Read more...

“North Country” Directed by Niki Caro Warner Bros. In 1975, the first women were hired in northern Minnesota iron mines. By 1989, men still outnumbered women 30 to one. Read more...

Whether eating bugs or fighting in swimsuits, reality-show contestants rarely seem like real people. But Maria Sajjad is not your typical reality-show contestant. For one thing, the third-year sociology student at UCLA is both Muslim and Pakistani, usually a rarity on prime-time programming. Read more...

Not since the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles has the American theater scene been fortunate enough to host the world-renowned Italian company Piccolo Teatro di Milano. Read more...