‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’

» MOVIE REVIEW By Charly SHELTON Comic book movies are all the rage right now. Avengers, Justice League, and even Aquaman have movies coming up. So it stands to reason that plumbing the depths of the medium to find anything yet untouched may pay off. Just slap a few writers on the script, find a […]

Mendelsohn Makes the Grade at Pasadena Show

Mendelsohn Makes the Grade at Pasadena Show

Verdugo Hills High School teacher and Glendale resident debuted songs from new album at The Rose last weekend. By Brandon HENSLEY Under warm lights flashing blue and red, there weren’t any noticeable slip-ups – no fingers sliding off the strings or drums sticks flying out of hands. Rather, it was as clean a show as […]

Symphony of a Great City » Nestor CASTIGLIONE

Duofest Finale, Eclectic Flute/Percussion at Glendale Noon Concerts Await   DuoFest, the Boston Court’s summer music festival produced in conjunction with the composer collective Synchromy, continues this week with performances by Panic Duo (violinist Pasha Tseitlin and pianist Nic Gerpe), as well as husband and wife team, soprano Justine Aronson and pianist Richard Valitutto. Today, […]

Young Violinist Finds Her Way to the Big Time

By Nestor CASTIGLIONE How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Local 9-year-old violin prodigy Eyla Zorbas has an answer: practice! As a 4-year-old she was captivated by music and was taken with the urge to play a musical instrument. “But I did not have enough guidance back then,” she explained. “Then one day I saw […]

Bringing Listeners Back to the Basics

Bringing Listeners Back to the Basics

By Brandon HENSLEY Almost daily, Jere Mendelsohn will put on a record by The Beatles. In this age of warped egotism and what it takes to navigate the music business, the famous quartet helps remind him why he started playing music in the first place. Music used to have a mystique, he explained. The way […]

Touring the Irish Whiskey Museum

Touring the Irish Whiskey Museum

By Charly SHELTON There are a few things attached to Ireland for people around the world. Some are embarrassing and overplayed, like leprechauns, green beer and Riverdance. Some are positive, like the beautiful Irish brogue, Guinness and real Irish music. Whiskey holds a spot within this zeitgeist as being natively attached to Ireland yet, for […]

Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle

By Charly SHELTON The magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter continues to grow, extending now into the summer evenings with a gigantic Patronus spell. The Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle is a brand new experience in the Wizarding World at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the perfect way to end the day. Using projection […]

Evan J. Marshall: A man and his Mandolin

By Néstor CASTIGLIONE Once a mainstay of the Baroque and Classical periods, the mandolin’s importance fell off a bit during the 19th and most of the 20th century. An instrument with ancient roots, the mandolin enjoyed great prominence during the Baroque period, inspiring a slew of concertos by some of the era’s most famous composers, […]

Scene in LA – July

LA THEATRE BEAT   BY   STEVE ZALL AND SID FISH   July 2017   The Fourth of July is not the only thing exploding this month – so is the local theatre scene! Just look at all these:   “The Cake” Della, a baker who makes cakes, has her life turned upside down when […]

‘Transformers 5’ – More Than Meets the Eye

‘Transformers 5’ – More Than Meets the Eye

By Charly SHELTON Forgive the awful, hackneyed title to this article that every critic has used since 2007 when the first film was released. But it really is the best way to describe the latest iteration of the Transformers saga, subtitled “The Last Knight.” Sure, they’re robots in disguise, but there is more to this […]